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THE 



FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT; 



GEO. W. BETHUNE, D. D., 

MINISTER 07 THE REFORMED PROTESTANT DUTCH CHURCH ON THB HEIGHTS, 

BROOKLYN. 



If these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall 

neither be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of 

our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter L 8. 



FOURTH EDITION. 



NEW YORK: 

BOARD OF PUBLICATION 

OF THB 

REFORMED PROTESTANT DUTCH CHURCH, 
SYNOD'S ROOMS, 61 FRANKLIN STREET. 

5 9. 




1859. _ /? ^ 




&JAs^^ A~^ &/&> 



I tf'5 9 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by 

REV. THOMAS C. STRONG, 

On behalf of the Board of Publication of the R. P. Dutch Church in 

North America, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court 

of the United States for the Southern District 

of New York. 



HOBFORD <fc CO., 

STATIONERS AND PRINTERS, 

57 and 69 William St., N. Y. 



10 

MY MOTHER 

AND 

FIRST TEACHER IN RELIGION, 

WITH THE HUMBLE HOPE THAT 

US 

BY 

THE DIVINE BLESSING 

UPON THE FOLLOWING PAGES, 

THEY ABB 

AFFECTIONATELY AND GRATEFULLY 

DEDICATED. 

(3) 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction 15 

Office of the Spirit 19 

Fruit of the Spirit* • ........... 41 

Love 48 

Jot 6? 

Peace 93 

Long-suffering. lit 

Gentleness 139 

Goodness 161 

Faith 191 

Meekness , . 231 

Temperance 257 

Conclusion 263 



i* 



ADVERTISEMENT 

TO THE THIED EDITION 



The author, having had the satisfaction of knowing 
that some good has been done, both at home and 
abroad, by the Divine blessing upon this quiet little 
book, is encouraged to send it, after a careful revision, 
again to the press, as the former editions were exhausted 
some time since, while the demand still continues. He 
has chosen for it a form smaller and cheaper, though 
not less neat, that it may be within the reach of more, 
yet easily read. The seed is scattered by a feeble hand, 
but not without hope that the God of the harvest will 
give it increase to the praise of his holy and merciful 
name. 

Philadelphia, July, 1845. 

(T) 



PREFACE. 



If any one should ask why the slight volume now of- 
fered to the reader has been added to the multitude of 
books, the author .can only answer, that the pressing 
entreaties of many, who heard the substance of it from 
the pulpit, have encouraged him to suffer its publication, 
in the hope that what was listened to with much atten- 
tion, may be read, by the Divine blessing, with some 
profit. He lays no claim to originality or depth in his 
manner of treating his subjects, but he has endeavoured 
to be plain, and according to the word of God. The 
critical may find much that a better taste might have 
corrected, the curious little that is new, and the polemic 
less that savours of party ; but, he trusts, that nothing 
will be discovered in these pages, which a Christian 
should condemn as inconsistent with the morality of the 
Gospel. 

9 



X PREFACE. 

In the care of the Church to establish and defend 
sound doctrine, the ethical part of Christianity is some- 
times neglected. It is, therefore, necessary that defini- 
tions which have become obscured, should be re-impres- 
sed, and the detail of a Christian life stated in so simple 
a manner, that " the wayfaring man, though a fool, may 
not err therein." The author has long believed, that the 
teaching of truth is the best way to refute error, and 
that there is no argument so convincing of the divinity 
of religion, as the life of a good man. He passes no 
censure upon his brethren who have girded on their 
armour, and are fighting lustily in the arena of contro- 
versy ; but he thinks he makes no error in keeping aloof 
from such conflict, while he endeavours to teach those 
whom the Head of the Church has placed under his care, 
" to do justice, to love mercy, and walk humbly with 
God," learning of Him who was " meek and lowly in 
heart," to be "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate 
from sinners." In the study of the precious text, for the 
illustration of which the following essays were written, 
he has felt as if he and his people were sitting at the feet 
of Jesus. All the hours spent upon them have been very 
sweet and pleasant, and if, in their printed form, they 
should be made useful, his reward will be rich indeed, 
for both the seed-time and harvest will have yielded joy 



PREFACE. XI 

and excited thankfulness. The generous reader can not 
judge severely a work, however imperfect, which was 
undertaken from a desire to do him good ; and the 
vigorous believer, who may find here little to satisfy his 
manly appetite, will, perhaps, breathe a brief prayer, 
that God would bless the humble offering to others, and 
pardon the errors and short-comings of a fellow-labourer 
in the vineyard of Christ. 



Galatians v. 22, 23. 

the fruit op the spirit is love, jot, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temper- 
ance *. against such there is no law. 



IS 



INTRODUCTION 



It is not necessary to our becoming good Christians, 
that we should be profound philosophers, acute critics, 
or nice logicians. " The Gospel is preached to the poor," 
who have but little time to acquire learning, or to use 
learning if they had it. Our Master told his disciples, 
that " whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God 
as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein;" and 
Paul, though the most learned of all the blessed apostles, 
delights to show the power and excellency of the simple 
Gospel, over all the wisdom and skill of men. Thus we 
are taught that, however valuable philosophy and 
learning may be in their proper places, they are valuable 
to the Christian only when under the direction of a 
child-like spirit. Indeed, nothing is so much in the way 
of simple faith, as that pride which unsanctified philoso- 

15 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 

phy begets. It was after the fishermen of Galilee fol- 
lowed Jesus, and the Syro-phenician, and the woman of 
Samaria, and the Gentile nobleman, and many an humble 
soul besides, had rejoiced in his love, that the Sanhedrim 
boastingly asked, " Have any of the rulers or Pharisees 
believed on him ? " And the apostle, when the number 
of the Church had swelled to thousands, was able to find 
few, if any, of " the wise, the scribes, or the disputers of 
this world" among them. Great then is the error of that 
Christian, who refuses to believe any of the facts in 
religion, which the Scripture sets forth, because, like 
Nicodemus, he cannot understand how such things can 
be. 

But of all subjects, upon which human philosophy has 
employed itself, none is more difficult than the nature of 
spirit. We have many works which profess to treat of 
the philosophy of mind, but those, who have studied 
them most, are most convinced of the vagueness and un- 
satisfactoriness of their conclusions. If we are thus 
unsuccessful in our attempts to understand the nature 
and laws of our own spirits, how can we hope to under- 
stand the nature of the Divine Spirit, or the manner of 
his influence upon the spirits of his creatures ? Humbly 
and devoutly, then, should we receive the declarations 
of God on this subject, and neither doubt, because we 



INTRODUCTION. XVU 

cannot understand more, nor impiously seek to be wise 
above what is written. 

The mediation of Christ, and the influence of the 
Holy Spirit, are the grand characteristic doctrines of the 
Christian system. The one exhibits God justifying his 
mercy in the salvation of his people ; the other, God 
carrying on that salvation to its glorious result. The 
one shows us our dependence, as guilty lost sinners, upon 
the grace of God for pardon and life ; the other our 
utter insufficiency, as weak and corrupt sinners, to avail 
ourselves of the blessings of salvation without his renew 
ing and perfecting power. The one declares that God is 
willing to receive for Christ's sake all penitent and be- 
lieving souls ; the other offers to us faith and repentance, 
that we may be enabled to go unto him and abide with 
him. The one assures us that there is a way of salvation ; 
the other teaches us how we may know that we are 
walking therein. The one gives to God all the glory of 
pardon ; the other, all the glory of our sanctification. 
The one is as essential to salvation as the other ; and it is 
as important that we should know the doctrine of Scrip- 
ture concerning the work of the Spirit, as that concern- 
ing the work of Christ. 

The aim of this little treatise will, therefore, be to 
show, 



XV111 INTRODUCTION. 

I. The office of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of 
God's people. 

II. The effects of his Divine work, as manifested in 
the graces of Christian character. 



O Almighty God, Father of lights, who givest wisdom 
liberally to all that ask it of thee, and upbraidest them 
not, thou didst promise by thy Son Jesus Christ, our Lord 
and Saviour, the Comforter, even the Holy Ghost, to 
teach us all thiDgs, and bring all things to our remem- 
brance, whatsoever thou hast commanded us. Bestow 
upon us plentifully of the Spirit of thy Son, that learn- 
ing of thee in meekness and simplicity of heart, our 
minds may be kept from all blindness of error or wrest- 
ing of thy holy truth, and our faith be fruitful in good 
works, to thy glory and our eternal profit, through Jesus 
Christ. Amen. 



OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 



The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is revealed to 
us principally in the Gospel. Jesus Christ was 
the first to speak plainly of God, as Father, Son 
and Holy Ghost; although the light of the New 
Testament enables us to discover many traces of a 
distinction between these Divine Persons in the 
older Scriptures, as when God declares he hath 
"set his Son on his holy hill of Zion," or promises 
to "pour out his Spirit upon all flesh." 

The work of salvation includes not only the par- 
don of Christ's people as sinners, but their restora- 

19 



20 OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 

tion to perfect and eternal holiness. Like every 
other work of Almighty power, it is ascribed to 
God, yet, in the execution of it, each of the 
blessed Persons has a distinct office and agency. 

The Father is ever represented as the conser- 
vator of the rights and honours of the Godhead, 
and, therefore, as the director and approver of the 
work. He sends his only begotten Son into the 
world; pronounces himself well pleased with his 
obedience in the form of a servant, and exalts him 
to his own right hand, with "a name that is above 
every name," in reward of his faithfulness unto 
death ; and it is He who, in answer to his Son's 
intercession, sends the Holy Spirit upon the hearts 
of his ransomed ones, to seal them as his own 
with the image of Christ, and carry on the work 
unto the day of their perfect redemption. 

The Son manifests the purpose of God in salva- 
tion; provides in his own sufferings and obedience 
the atonement and the righteousness which justifies 
the Father in pardoning the sinner and restoring 
him to happiness, and stands as the Mediator be- 



OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 21 

tween the believer and the God whom he has 
offended, but to whom he would return. 

The Holy Spirit prepares the human nature 
for the incarnation of the Son; strengthens the 
Immanuel in the performance of his work on earth 
in obedience and suffering; and then fits, per- 
suades, and enables the sinner to receive the salva- 
tion and follow Christ, by opening the eyes of his 
understanding to perceive the truth which Christ 
hath revealed, converting his depraved heart to 
love it, and strengthening him in all his powers to 
obey it and walk in it. 

Thus is salvation the work of Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost ; and to Father, Son and Holy Ghost 
should we render equal praises. But as the pur- 
pose of the Father could not be complete without 
the work of the Son, so the work of the Son can- 
not be efficient without the application of the 
Spirit. The apostle Peter declares his believing 
brethren to be "elect according to the foreknowl- 
edge of God the Father, through sanctification of 
the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the 



22 OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 

blood of Christ ;" and the apostle Paul says, 
" Through him (that is Christ) have we access 
by one Spirit unto the Father." It is, therefore, 
to the energy of the Spirit, that we are to attribute 
all the effects of the Gospel upon our hearts. For, 
as in the first creation, God made the world by the 
Son, the Word of his power, yet it was the Spirit 
which moved upon the face of the waters to bring 
order out of confusion, and light out of darkness ; 
so, in the new creation of his people to holiness, 
the word of God in the Gospel of his Son prevails 
not, until the same Spirit has moved on the cor- 
rupt and dead soul, awakening it to a new and 
holy life. 

Hence the graces of the Christian character are 
called "The fruit of the Spirit." 

It is important, also, to observe the name which 
is given to this Divine Person and agent in our 
redemption. He is called the Spirit, the Holy 
Spirit, or Holy Ghost. God the Father has never 
revealed himself immediately; all his revelations 
are made to us by the Son or the Holy Spirit. 



OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 23 

Hence the Baptist says, " No man hath seen God 
at any time ; the only begotten Son, which is in 
the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him," 
or made him known. And the writer of the 
Hebrews calls the Son "the brightness" or 
shining forth "of his" Father's "glory, and the 
express image," or expressed character, "of his 
person." For the same reason the Son is called 
"the eternal Word," or speech, or voice of God; 
and the various manifestations of God's power 
are declared to be the works of the Son. "All 
things were made by him, (the Word), and with 
out him there was not any thing made that was 
made. In him was life, and the life was the light 
of men." 

All the Divine appearances, or manifestations of 
God to the senses of men, under the old Testament 
were, most probably, by the Son, except some of 
the prophetical visions which opened the spiritual 
world. Christ was the Angel of the covenant who 
appeared unto Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, who 
" dwelt in the bush," and " spake to Moses from 



24 OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 

the cloudy pillar." Daniel expressly says, that he 
who walked with the three in the fiery furnace, 
had "a form like unto that of the Son of God." 
Even the Shechinah, the Visible Glory, that rest- 
ed upon the ark of the covenant, thought by many 
to represent the Holy Spirit, may with greater 
consistency be supposed to have represented Him, 
who was the Angel of the covenant, and of the 
Presence, that led the people by that cloud in the 
wilderness, and who, as we have seen in the New 
Testament, is declared to be the "brightness of 
God's glory." 

The Holy Spirit has not manifested himself to 
the senses, except when he descended like a dove 
upon the Saviour at his baptism, to prove that 
" the Spirit of the Lord God was upon him ;" or 
in cloven tongues of fire, which rested upon the 
heads of the eleven, when the "mighty rushing 
wind filled all the house where they were sitting," 
to show the communication of promised spiritual 
gifts. It is remarkable that these manifestations 
were emblematical, the dove, or the tongues ; and, 



OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 25 

having: been made to establish the fact of the 
Spirit's communication to the Saviour and the 
Church, they were never afterwards repeated. No 
visible influence accompanied the power of the 
Spirit in the conversion of the thousands at the 
Pentecost, or when the apostles conferred the 
Spirit upon others by the laying on of hands. 
Yet that God doth manifest himself by the Spirit, 
is clear from the names of the Spirit ; " the Spirit 
of knowledge," " of wisdom," " of power," " of 
revelation in the knowledge of Him," and "the 
Spirit of truth." 

The revelations of God by the Holy Spirit, and 
the operations of that Spirit, must be purely spir- 
itual, and can be known only by our spirits, and 
his effects upon them, and, through them, upon 
our lives. Hence our Saviour, in answer to the 
cavils of Nicodemus, says : " The wind (the unseen 
wind) bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest 
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it 
cometh and whither it goeth ; so is every one that 
is born of the Spirit." He is conscious of its in- 
3 



26 OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 

fluences only by its effects. In another place the 
Master says, "The kingdom of God cometh not 
with observation, (that is, of the senses,) neither 
shall they say, Lo ! here, or lo ! there, for behold it 
is within you." For the same reason the Gospel is 
termed "the dispensation of the Spirit," to distin- 
guish it from the Levitical, the dispensation of 
sense. The spirit, throughout the epistles of Paul, 
is opposed to the flesh, or the sensual part of man ; 
and he tells us that "the Spirit witnesses with our 
spii'its that we are born of God." We can, there- 
fore, expect and know the Spirit's power, only by 
his spiritual influences, and hence the fruits of the 
Spirit are spiritual graces, virtues of the Spirit, as 
love, joy, peace, and the rest. 

It is also instructive to mark, that what the 
apostle terms the fruits of the Spirit, are really the 
qualities and actions of the renewed man. It is 
the Christian who loves, who is joyous, peaceful, 
long-suffering, gentle, good, faithful, meek, and 
temperate. These are personal characteristics, 
yet they are the fruits of the Spirit ; which teaches 



OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 27 

us that they are not the actings of the Spirit him- 
self, but the effects of the work he has wrought 
upon the heart, and of his influence which still 
abides there. The Christian is not less a free 
agent because of the Spirit's power, for all these 
qualities require the exercise of his will ; but his 
soul has been graciously wrought upon by the 
Holy Spirit, (who well knows how to deal with 
the spirits he has made), so that all the tendencies 
of his character are changed, and he delights in 
and is enabled to manifest the graces of that holi- 
ness, to which it was the purpose of God in salva- 
tion he should be brought. The fruit is not graft- 
ed on the branch, but the branch is grafted on the 
living vine, and by the power of the life derived 
from it, brings forth fruit. The love, the joy> the 
peace, and the rest, are the believer's, but the 
glory of them belongs to the Holy Spirit. As, 
when in the natural man the flesh works upon the 
soul so as to produce sin, sin is termed the work 
of the flesh (ver. 19); so, when the Holy Ghost, 
working on the soul, produces holiness, holiness 



28 OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 

is termed the fruit of the Spirit. How the Holy 
Ghost works upon the soul to produce this effect, 
we cannot explain; neither can we explain the 
power of matter over mind; and, certainly, the 
fact in the former case is not more incredible than 
in the other. The natural man is conscious of the 
influence of his body over his mind ; so may the 
Christian be of the influence of the Spirit over 
his heart. 

The Spirit undoubtedly uses the truth of the 
Gospel in sanctifying the believer's heart ; for 
"the word of God" is called "the sword of the 
Spirit." Our Saviour prays, that his people may 
be "sanctified through the truth." The apostle 
says, "If the truth shall make you free, ye shall 
be free indeed." The apostle Peter speaks of our 
"being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of 
incorruptible, by the word of God." David de- 
clares that "the law of the Lord is perfect, con- 
verting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is 
sure, making wise the simple ; the statutes cf the 
Lord are right, rejoicing the heart ; the command- 



OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 29 

ment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." 
Yet all these effects are ascribed to the Spirit of 
God; and faith, which is nothing else than a 
believing apprehension of the truth, " purifieth the 
heart," " worketh by love," and "overcometh the 
world." 

It is clear, however, that the truth is not suffi- 
cient of itself, for many hear but receive it not. A 
sword must be wielded by a strong hand, so must 
the word be wielded by the Spirit ; and the Sa- 
viour prays that the word may be the means or 
instrument by which his people may be sanctified, 
Thus, the fruits enumerated in the text, grow from 
the seed of the word sown in the heart, but the 
heart was prepared to receive the seed of the truth, 
and is strengthened to shoot it forth unto fruitful- 
ness of grace. The seed in the parable of the sower 
was the word of God, yet only that which fell in 
good ground yielded fruit ; while that, which fell 
on the beaten path, never entered the earth, and 
that, which fell among thorns, was choked, and 
that which fell on stony ground, where the soil was 
3* 



30 OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 

thin, soon withered away. But all our hearts are 
by nature hard, filled with cares and deceitful 
pleasures ; or, if they show any slight sensibility, 
it soon passes away: The Holy Ghost, who 
would cultivate our hearts so that the word may 
be fruitful in them, prepares them as good ground ; 
he breaks up the heart by contrition, that the seed 
may enter ; he takes away the hard rock that it 
may shoot deep ; he weeds out the thorns lest they 
choke it ; and, even after that, he sheds dews of 
influence, and heat from the Sun of Righteousness, 
and breathes his vital breath continually upon it, 
that it may grow unto perfection. This he does 
in conversion, when he softens the hard heart, 
which is enmity against God and resists his truth, 
to feel his power ; and in sanctification, when he 
communicates to it, and continues to communicate, 
his genial energy. To whom then shall the praise 
of the harvest be given? To the soil, which 
but for him, would have borne noxious weeds ? 
or to the Divine Cultivator who prepared the 



OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 31 

soil, supplied the seed, and quickened and guarded, 
its growth ? 

We must, however, take care in using these 
figures, derived from natural things, to illustrate 
spiritual, lest we carry them too far, and impute to 
the soul the senselessness and sluggishness of 
matter. The natural heart is indeed dead in tres- 
passes and sins, wholly inclined to all evil, and, 
therefore, can bring forth no good thing. But the 
death of a spiritual, immortal, and ever-active soul, 
is as different from the death of the body, as spirit 
is different from matter. The dead body is wholly 
motionless and unconscious, but the dead soul is 
willingly and intelligently active in wickedness. 
There is a will in the dead soul; and although 
that will is in bondage to sin, it is still will, and is 
in bondage because the heart loves sin. Hence, 
although our conversion is the work of the Holy 
Spirit, the sinner is commanded " to turn unto 
God," and he is condemned for not repenting, 
because he, by his impenitence, " doth always 
resist the Holy Ghost," and " will not come unto 



32 OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 

Christ, that he might have life." There is diffi- 
culty here, but not in practice. 

Every sinner knows that he continues to sin 
voluntarily; and every reader of the Scripture 
knows that if he " yield himself to God," the 
Spirit will take possession of his heart ; and every 
one, who puts these two truths together, must 
know, that, if he be not converted, it is his own 
fault, because he has not only neglected striving 
to enter the strait gate, but has struggled against 
the Spirit, lest he should be brought to enter. 
Dependence upon the grace of the Holy Ghost 
for a new life is no excuse nor warrant for our 
idleness, but, on the contrary rebukes it; else 
there were no meaning in the command, "Cast 
away from you all the transgressions whereby ye 
have transgressed, and make you a new heart 
and a new spirit, for why will ye die !" (Ezek. 
xviii. 31), or in the promise, "They that seek 
shall find ;" or in the condemnation of those, who 
have not "believed in the name of the only be- 
gotten Son of God." 



OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 33 

As we are to be zealous in seeking the conver- 
sion of our souls, so after conversion are we to be 
zealous in seeking our entire sanctification unto 
God. Sanctification, like regeneration, is the work 
of the Spirit of God, yet our Lord commands us 
to " be holy as our Father in heaven is holy ; " 
and the injunctions of the apostles are frequent to 
"grow in grace, and in knowledge;" "to set our 
affections upon things above;" and "to walk wor- 
thy of the vocation wherewith we are called." 
These show that it is our duty, to be holy, and 
to grow in grace, in knowledge, in heavenly- 
mindedness, and Christian consistency, until we 
are holy, even as our Father in heaven is holy ; 
and we cannot be obedient to the heavenly voice 
so long as we wait, without any effort upon our 
own part, for the Spirit of God to do all within us 
and for us. We are to "work out our own salva- 
tion with fear and trembling ;" that is, we are to 
strive industriously with a holy anxiety, until our 
salvation be complete ; and the fact, that " it is 
God that worketh in us both to will and to do of 



34 OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 

his own good pleasure," is declared as a reason and 
encouragement to our industry, not to our indo- 
lence. Thus the grace of the Holy Ghost is pro- 
mised only to those who seek it. Our Lord, after 
enforcing the duty of perseverance and importuni- 
ty in prayer, says: "If ye, being evil, know 
how to give good gifts unto your children, how 
much more shall your heavenly Father give the 
Holy Spirit to them that ask him ?" And in the 
Hebrews we are told to go "boldly unto the 
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and 
find grace to help in every time of need." So 
that without prayer, earnest, faithful and constant, 
we may not hope for the blessing of the Holy 
Ghost upon our hearts. 

And again, we are taught that this Holy Spirit 
may be "resisted," "despised," "grieved," and 
"quenched." He is "resisted," when we refuse to 
obey the gracious motions he makes within us to 
the doing of good works, and remain idle and 
wicked ; He is " despised," when we set a slight 
value upon his gracious benefits, and do not im* 



OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT, 35 

prove his Divine help unto the utmost; He is 
"giieved," when we do not put away from our 
hearts all that is offensive to his pure sight, as 
vmcleanness, pride, enmity, or idolatry ; and He is 
¥ quenched," when we so continue to "resist," 
" despise," and "grieve" him, that he leaves us 
to our sinful folly, and we feel no more his power 
within us, in a sense of sin, a desire of Divine as- 
sistance, and an endeavour after a holy life. The 
grace of the Holy Spirit, like the talents in the 
parable, is given us to increase by our own indus- 
try ; for " to him that hath (that is, makes a good 
use of the Divine blessing) shall be given" more, 
and "from him that hath not, shall be taken away 
even that which he seemeth to have." While, 
therefore, we grow in the Christian life by Divine 
grace, it is our duty to grow in grace. 

Besides, the quality of grace is such, that though, 
it is strength from God, we must use it. Grace 
gives no new faculty, but strengthens the faculties 
which we have. When our Saviour cured the 
paralytic, he did not give him new limbs or new 



36 OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 

sinews, nor did he raise him up, set him on his 
feet, and carry him on his way. He commanded 
him to arise ; and, when, in obedience to the Di- 
vine word, and reliance upon the Divine promise 
conveyed in it, the withered man made the effort, a 
new life went through his wasted frame, and he 
arose, by his own volition and effort, through the 
strength which was given him. So the grace of 
God does not give to the Christian another soul, 
but quickens him with new life, and endows him 
with new energy. God gives us strength, but it 
is a strength we are to exert. The mind, enlight- 
ened by the Holy Spirit, perceives and understands 
the truth ; the conscience, quickened by the Holy 
Spirit, feels and acknowledges it ; the heart, con- 
verted by the Holy Spirit, loves and obeys it. 
Yet it is the Christian himself who thus under- 
stands, acknowledges, loves and obeys the truth ; 
though he does so by the grace of God enabling 
him. If he neglect the study of the truth, or 
refuses to study it with candour and simplicity, 
or to cherish it with care and affection, he has 



OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 37 

no reason to hope for the grace of God. It is 
only when and so long as we nse or exert the 
strength of grace, that we can know we have it, 
or may expect to enjoy it and profit by it. "The 
idle soul shall suffer hunger, but the hand of the 
diligent maketh rich." Our working is the sure 
sign of the presence of grace, our idleness the sure 
sign of its absence. God's people, "in the day of 
his power," are a " willing people ;" and the Holy 
Spirit works in them both "to will and to do;" 
for, as there is no obedience except it be from the 
heart, we cannot do, except we be willing, God's 
good pleasure. 

Hence, the fruits of the Spirit are the qualities 
and actions of the renewed man, not produced 
without him, but wrought through him. 

Let us, then, be ever mindful of our dependence 
upon the Spirit of God. We derived our new life 
from him, and only he can maintain it in us. 
Without him we can neither think good thoughts, 
speak good words, nor do good deeds. Any 
strength, of which we may be conscious is from 
4 



38 OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 

him alone ; and, if lie withdraw himself from us, 
we must languish and die. 

While we bless the Spirit of life for his gracious 
influence, let us not forget that we have received 
his power from the Father, only for the' sake of 
the righteousness and intercession of Christ his 
Son. All our good has been wrought in us by the 
power of the Holy Spirit, and, therefore, no good 
nor merit in us could have procured for us his 
gracious favour. If the Father had not sent his 
Son, if the Son had not lived and died and inter- 
ceded for us, the Holy Spirit would never have 
been ours. 

While we seek from the Father, for Christ's 
sake, the continual help of the Holy Spirit, let 
us ever "maintain good works." It is for the 
maintenance of good works that the Holy Spirit 
is given ; and it is only in the faithful use of his 
^gracious strength, that we can hope to obtain 
more. If, therefore, "we would obtain what God 
doth promise, we must love what God doth com- 
mand." What can we render, less than our whole 



OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 39 

hearts and lives, for such an unspeakable gift? 
"Know ye not," says the apostle, "that ye are 
the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God 
dwelleth in you?" 



II. 



FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. 



Several principal truths have now been ascer- 
tained by us, which it is necessary we should re- 
member, if we would profitably pursue our medi- 
tations upon our holy and beautiful text. They 
are these : 

The purpose of God in salvation is, to deliver 
his people, not only from the punishment due to 
them for their sins, but also from their sinfulness 
itself; that so they may no longer offend him by 
their disobedience, but serve and enjoy him in that 
perfection for which God designed the nature of 
man in his original creation ; 

4* 41 



42 FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. 

This sanctification, or perfection of holiness, is 
wrought in the hearts of God's people by the Di- 
vine power of the Holy Ghost, the third Person in 
the ever blessed and glorious Godhead ; 

The instrument, or means, employed by the 
Holy Ghost in producing this moral change, is 
the truth of God in the Gospel of Christ; which 
he makes effectual, by enlightening the under- 
standing to perceive it, quickening the conscience 
to feel and acknowledge it, and converting the 
heart to love and obey it ; and thus his gracious 
influence is discovered in the personal qualities and 
actions of the renewed man, which are, therefore, 
called "the fruit of the Spirit." 

II. THE EFFECTS OF THE HOLY SPIRITS WORK, 
AS MANIFESTED IN THE GRACES OF CHRISTIAN 
CHARACTER. 

" The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance." 



LOVE. 



The apostle holds forth to us a rich cluster of 
graces, but he names first the stem from which 
the rest hang. For as upon Christ, the living 
vine, all the living branches grow, and from the 
Spirit, through Him, derive their vigour and fruit- 
fulness ; so it is from love the other graces pro- 
ceed, and through love are ripened unto perfec- 
tion. Yet it were an unworthy figure to make 
love, the sweetest fruit of the cluster, a mere stem, 
which is dry and tasteless. We should rather 
compare these graces to fruits, which grow the one 
out of the other, love being the first formed and 
chiefest. 

Love has never been accurately defined, but we 
know it to be, That affection which has delight in 
its objects, and desires their welfare. 

43 



44 L 'O V E . 

A rational being loves not without a reason, 
which seems to him good. The reasons of a 
Christian's love are drawn from the word of God, 
guiding and governing the sensibilities of his soul. 
He loves God, because of his holy excellence, his 
loving-kindness toward him, and the enjoyment he 
has in his communion. He loves those to whom 
he is bound by the closer ties of life, not only be- 
cause of the natural affections the Creator has im- 
planted in his heart, but because God has, in a 
greater or less degree, entrusted their welfare to 
his care. He loves Christians, because they are 
beloved by his heavenly Father, bear His image 
so far as grace has transformed them, and because 
their sympathy and friendship is a mutual bless- 
ing. He loves all men, because God has commend- 
ed them to his love ; and he desires and delights 
in their welfare, as God loves the world. He 
loves the holy angels, because they are faithful 
and honoured servants of his God, minister to him 
now by Christ's gracious permission, and will be 



LOVE. 45 

his loving companions in the praise of God 
throughout eternity. 

It is, however, to be regretted, that the Scrip- 
tural term charity has fallen into disuse, or, 
rather, has been reduced and confined to the sense 
of mere alms-giving. Charity, as our translators 
of the New Testament understood its meaning, 
describes this grace better than " love," which has 
so many lower associations. For the apostle does 
not say, love to God, or love to the Church, or love 
of our neighbour, but simply "love;" meaning not 
so much the acting or going forth of love, as that 
loving temper, or lovingness of soul, which dis- 
poses us to love whenever the proper object is pre- 
sented. Thus God was love long before he had 
made any creatures to be the objects of his love, 
even from all eternity ; and though, it may be said 
he loved his own glorious self, and delighted in his 
own infinitely lovely perfections, yet we may not 
doubt that it was his loving disposition, which led 
him to create beings upon whom he could bestow 
the riches of his goodness, and receive their love 



46 LOVE. 

in grateful return. Adam, when lie stood without 
human companionship in the garden of sinless de- 
light, had all the affections which man has now, 
or glorified man will have in the vast society of 
heaven, though doubtless not so expanded, be- 
cause they were not called forth and educated. 
He loved his God with an entire and child-like 
affection. He loved all around him, the waving 
trees, the variegated flowers, the mellow fruits, 
the flowing waters, the rejoicing birds, the in- 
nocent beasts, the morning light and the evening 
shadow, the sun, the moon, the stars, and all that 
told of his Maker's love and invited to his Maker's 
praise. Yet there was a want in his soul, a lov- 
ing tendency God had implanted in his holy 
nature, which needed other beings to love, and 
to love him. "God saw it was not good for man 
to be alone," and, therefore, he gave a human 
companion to his bosom, and formed for him 
that holy union from which all the relations of 
life are derived. He did not change and adapt 
the heart of man to these new ties, but ordained 



LOVE. 47 

them because they were necessary to man's lov- 
ing nature. 

If it should be asked, Is not God a sufficient 
object of all love? Was it necessary that the 
human heart should have any other beside him, 
to call into exercise all its pure affection ? there 
is a ready answer. Love is an active principle; 
and especially when stimulated by gratitude for 
kindness received, as is the love of a holy being 
for God, it must manifest itself by some proof or 
return. When pent up in the heart, it produces 
uneasiness and pain. Indeed, experience convinces 
us, that the mere excitement of our sensibilities 
without an opportunity of their going forth in 
action, has a hurtful and hardening influence upon 
the heart ; as is seen in those who love to weep 
over tales and scenes of fictitious wo, yet steel 
themselves against sympathy with real suffering. 
The holy soul pours out its love in adoring thanks 
to God ; but thanks are not enough. He would 
do something to prove his affection. His inquiry 
is, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his 



48 LOVE. 

benefits" towards me ? And were there none in 
the universe to love but God, the answer would 
be, Nothing but thanks. God already has all. 
He is infinitely above wanting any thing to 
increase his blessedness. All that we have is his, 
and what we can give him is now his own. As 
David sings, " my soul, thou hast said unto the 
Lord, Thou art my Lord ; my goodness extendeth 
not to thee;" (or as another translation has it, 
"My goods are nothing to thee;") and then adds, 
"but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the 
excellent, in whom is all my delight." He could 
bestow nothing upon God, but he could prove his 
gratitude by kindness towards the children of God. 
God has created other beings for us to love and 
serve, that in so doing we may not only prove, but 
cultivate and increase our love to himself. Thus 
holy love to God is always accompanied by loving 
kindness toward his creatures. The angels are 
holy, and their delight has ever been in loving 
God; yet adoration and praise is not all their 
employment. They are "ministers of his, who do 



LOVE. 49 

his pleasure;" "ministering spirits sent forth to 
minister to the heirs of salvation ;" and they feel a 
joy, above heaven's ordinary rapture, "over every 
sinner that repenteth." The command to man, to 
"love God with all his heart, and with all his 
mind, and with all his strength," is followed by a 
command to "love his neighbour as himself;" 
which could not be, unless love to our neighbour 
is included in love to God; for how else can 
we give all our heart to God, and love ourselves 
and our neighbour too? So one apostle says, 
"Love is the fulfilling of the law;" and another, 
"No man hath seen God at any time. If we love 
one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is 
perfected in us." In the various descriptions of 
heaven, where the Christian will be perfectly holy 
and happy in the love of God, the idea of a holy 
society and communion with other holy intelli- 
gences, is always introduced: "the spirits of just 
men made perfect, and an innumerable company 
of angels." Therefore, the apostle names "love" 
as the first fruit of the Spirit's gracious work in 
5 



50 LOVE. 

restoring us to a holy perfection ; even that loving- 
ness of spirit, which disposes us to love God, and 
to love all, whom he has commanded us to love in 
loving him. 

A reference to the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corin- 
thians will probably convince us, that this loving 
disposition is what the apostle intends by charity. 
There he tells us, that we may "speak with the 
tongues of men and angels;" "may have the gift 
of prophecy," and " understand all mysteries and 
all knowledge;" may "bestow all our goods 
to feed the poor ;" and give our bodies to mar- 
tyrdom by fire ; yet be destitute of charity, and 
have no part in the kingdom of God : but that 
charity "suffereth long, and is kind; envieth 
not; vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up; doth 
not behave itself unseemly ; seeketh not her own ; 
is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth 
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth 
all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
endureth all things." Many and various effects 
are thus attributed to charity ; so that charity is 



LOVE. 51 

neither one, nor all of them, but the disposition 
and temper of the soul which produces them all. 
Therefore he adds, " charity never faileth." It is 
a holy, abiding and vigorous spirit, which rules 
the whole man, ever directing him to the humble 
and loving fulfilment of all his duties to God and 
men. 

This loving temper we can have only so far as 
we are sanctified by the power of the Holy Ghost, 
enabling us to perceive, and converting us to love 
and obey the truth. This is taught in all those 
passages which declare that the perfection of obe- 
dience is in love. As the apostle to Timothy, 
"Now the end of the commandment is charity, 
out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and 
of faith unfeigned;" and again to the Colossians, 
"Above all things put on charity, which is the 
bond of perfectness," not only combining together 
and perfecting all Christian virtues, but also mak- 
ing the society of men or angels perfect. Heaven, 
where all shall be holy and blessed, is described 
as a place of perfect love ; and the nearest approach 



52 LOVE. 

we can make to the enjoyment of heaven upon 
earth, is the enjoyment of this charity in our souls; 
for, says the beloved apostle, "He that dwelleth 
in love, dwelleth in God and God in him ;" and 
what higher idea can we have of heaven, than that 
there we shall be happy in the presence and com- 
munion of God? It is taught yet more fully in 
that short but wonderful sentence, which the loving 
disciple loved to repeat, "God is love." Nowhere 
do we find it said that God is wisdom, though he 
is omniscient ; or that he is power, though he is 
almighty; or that he is justice, though he is 
infinitely just. These are attributes to the Divine 
nature ; but love is the Divine character itself, the 
perfection of the infinite God. When God made 
man in his own image, he made him a being of 
peace and holy love ; and the Holy Spirit, in re- 
storing man to this moral likeness of God, can do 
it only by restoring him to this loving spirit. 
Hence, when the apostle names together "faith, 
and hope, and charity," he tells us that charity is 
the greatest of the three ; because, though faith 



LOVE. 53 

mates us acquainted with such a portion of the 
wisdom of God as we are here able to receive ; 
and hope is the expectation of certain good from 
the hand of that God, with whom faith makes us 
acquainted ; it is love, which makes our moral like- 
ness to him. Faith and hope are the handmaids 
of charity, who bring her glad tidings of God's 
glory, and truth, and promise, that she may rejoice 
yet more in him and in his blessed service. They 
are the golden conduits through which the love of 
heaven flows to the soul on earth. Nay, they are 
the wings of love, upon which she lifts herself 
above every meaner thing, and flies upward to the 
bosom of God. Yet are they but the means, love 
alone is the end. They shall fail in the light and 
fruition of God's blessed presence ; but charity 
will never fail, and throughout eternity will strike 
her harp, and swell the song of all whom the love 
of God has washed white in the blood of the 
Lamb. 

This charity must be the effect of the Spirit's 
work in sanctifying the heart through the truth ; 
5* 



54 LOVE. 

for as none are holy except those who are heartily 
and unreservedly obedient unto God, none can be 
truly obedient to him except those who truly love 
him and delight in his truth. For, certainly, that 
outward worship and seeming service, in which the 
heart is not found, can be nothing better than in- 
sult to God, who looks not on our outward coun- 
tenance or actions, but upon the thoughts and 
intents of the heart. If we do not approve in our 
souls of the commandments he has given us, we 
may seem to comply with them from a dread of 
his wrath, but there is rebellion in the soul, a 
doubting of the wisdom of the Lawgiver, and a 
willingness, if we dared, to throw off his authority 
altogether. And, as our duty to men is but a part 
of our duty to God, the same want of charity will, 
in God's holy sight, blast all our pretences to vir- 
tue in our conduct towards them. When, how- 
ever, the soul has been taught by the Holy Spirit, 
and is truly convinced that the truth of God is 
perfect wisdom, that all his ways are just and good, 
that his every commandment is a law of love, and 



LOVE. 5b 

all his promises are "yea and amen in Christ 
Jesus ;" every revelation of God's attributes, every 
act of his providence, every precept of his will, and 
every assurance of his love, calls forth its love to 
him, and urges it willingly along the path of duty. 
When this instruction is complete, the love of the 
soul will be perfect, its obedience perfect, and its 
blessedness perfect. The sanctified man will find 
all his delight in God and his service, for he will 
have no motive, and, therefore, no inclination to 
sin ; while the love of God towards him, in thus 
giving him a knowledge of Himself, guiding him 
in the way of life, and assuring him of His favour, 
will, the more he contemplates it, increase his 
affection and zeal. 

Thus satisfied with the riches of the love of God, 
he will be lifted above all temptation to offend 
against his fellow men. What is it that produces 
wrong against others, but a love of those things 
which God has forbidden, because they are hurt- 
ful? "From whence come wars and fightings 
among you ? Come they not from hence, even of 



56 LOVE. 

your lusts, which war in your members," (else- 
where called u fleshly lusts,") which war against 
the soul ? When the soul is filled with love and 
delight in God, it will never contend or quarrel 
for such things. He, who has the friendship of 
God, can suffer no real injury. Therefore, though 
called to bear injustice from his fellow men, he 
regards it as part of God's discipline of his spirit ; 
and he " suffers long" and patiently, bearing no ill 
will against his enemies, but is " kind" and gentle 
in return. He is contented with the lot, which 
the God he loves and who loves him, has assigned ; 
and " envieth not" the superior fortune of any in 
this world ; while he is so persuaded of the inex- 
haustible riches of God's blessing, that he would 
have the whole universe share it with him. The 
glory of the holy and Divine object of his love, 
humbles him to a deep, but not painful, sense of 
his own inferior nature ; and he " vaunteth not 
himself," nor is " puffed up" with pride, but gives 
to God all the glory of all his worthiness. Ever 
impressed with a sense of the Divine Presence, 



LOVE. 57 

and fearful of offending a Being in whose approba- 
tion is his delight, he "behaveth" himself "not 
unseemly" before the world, but with that un- 
feigned courtesy which love and modesty always 
teaches. Nay, bent upon the better riches which 
await him beyond this life, he " seeketh not his 
own ;" and is content to suffer the loss of worldly 
good, rather than have the serenity of his temper 
ruffled, and his love for his neighbour weakened. 
Therefore, he is not " easily provoked ;" trifles 
cannot disturb him; nor will he be continually 
suspicious, but rather " thinketh no evil," from 
very abhorrence of all that would pollute the pure 
fountain of his thoughts ; while he " rejoiceth in 
the truth," because he loves to reflect its holy light 
from his soul. Thus he " beareth all things" with 
patience and resignation ; " believeth all things," 
with the candour of a pure and unsuspecting mind ; 
and "hopeth all things," because he loves and 
longs only for that which is good. 

Ah ! we say, How difficult is such a charity in 
such a world as this ! But it is not more difficult 



58 LOVE. 

than godliness, and were our love of God perfect, 
our love to man would be perfect also. Yet, cou- 
rage ! believer, when " that which is perfect is 
come," this imperfection " will be done away." 
In heaven all will be holy,, " The wicked will 
cease from troubling." Sin will be found neither 
in our companions nor ourselves ; and universal 
charity, without a check or hindrance, will bind 
the holy family together and to God. Here our 
love to God, and our love to man flowing from it, 
is imperfect, because our knowledge is imperfect. 
"We " see through a glass darkly." We " know 
but in part." But when " we know even as we 
are known," our charity shall be perfect as our 
knowledge. Until that blessed heaven be opened 
for our entrance, the strength of our faith can only 
be known by the strength of our love, and the 
increase of our faith by the increase of our love ; 
for " the fruit of the Spirit is love." 

We should, then, be ever mindful, that without 
a loving spirit to God and man, we have no evi- 
dence that we have received the renewing grace 



LOVE. 59 

of the Holy Ghost. It is not enough that we have 
knowledge, for the stripes of the unfaithful servant 
who knew his master's will, were many more than 
his who knew it not. " Knowledge puffeth up," 
saith the apostle, " charity edifieth." Knowledge 
without charity, is nothing better than worthless 
wind, which blows us up into a great conceit of 
ourselves, making us arrogant towards men, and 
presumptuous towards God, and so hateful to both. 
But knowledge, used by charity, builds us fairly 
and firmly upon the true foundation Christ Jesus, 
until we become a perfect temple for the habita- 
tion of God through the Spirit. The man of mere 
knowledge is, at best, like that fig tree which our 
Lord saw between Jerusalem and Bethany, making 
a rare show of leaves from a distance, yet barren 
of all fruit when 'we come near to get good; and, 
like that tree, he will be accursed by the judgment 
of Jesus. But the man of charity, who grows in 
grace as he grows in knowledge, is like the tree 
" planted by the rivers of water," not only fair in 
the garniture of foliage, but " yielding its fruit, in 



60 LOVE. 

its season," and, therefore, worthy of a place m 
the garden of the Lord. 

It is not enough that we have zeal ; for all zeal 
that flows not from charity, is but a mixture of 
pride and ambition, intolerance and censorious- 
ness. We may call it, as Jehu did his, a zeal for 
the Lord ; but the end shows it to be a zeal for 
ourselves,* that men might admire us in the Church, 
as they do heroes in the field. Even martyrdom, 
" the giving of our bodies to be burned," is then 
nothing more than an obstinate courage, such as 
has often distinguished the worst men in the worst 
causes. Party spirit and sectarian bigotry, like 
their father the devil, may often assume the form 
of angels of light, and deceive men, but they can- 
not deceive God ; and, like every other lying coun- 
terfeit of goodness, will bring shame and contempt 
upon all who put them in the place of love to God 
and man. The fire of true zeal is the fire of love 
come down from heaven, a pure and hurtless flame, 
which burns to warm, to cherish, and to bless ; 
but that which shows itself in rancorous contro- 



LOVE. 61 

versy and bitter recriminations, was kindled in 
hell, and burns to torture and destroy. 

Nor is external practice of any kind enough to 
prove our gracious state. The character of an 
act is found only in the motive ; and charity, as 
we have seen, in the loving disposition of the soul. 
There is scarcely any outward conduct required by 
the Gospel, which we might not imitate from very 
selfishness. How often has ostentation worn the 
garb of benevolence, ambition called itself public 
spirit, and secret hate deluded its victim by honied 
courtesies ! And in these days, when the beautiful 
morality of religion is so much lauded, what guise 
of selfishness so specious as that of piety ! We 
may not be conscious of the hypocrisy ; for such 
is the deceitfulness of sin, and the willingness of 
the heart to be deceived into good opinions of it- 
self, that nothing but the light of God, can detect 
and discover to ourselves our true character ; but 
we have this certain rule, that which is not love is 
sin. 

Only so far as our hearts are filled with love, 
6 



62 LOVE. 

are they filled with grace. Every thought of 
discontent with our lot, or dissatisfaction with 
God's commandments; every thought, of ill-will, 
dislike or envy, nay every thought, which is not 
love and peacefulness, is a witness against us that 
our sanctification is incomplete. Let us then 
search the dark corners of our hearts, and cast 
out from them all but love; for, until they are 
filled with love, they cannot be filled with God ; 
because God is love. 

While we believe that neither knowledge, nor 
zeal, nor outward practice, can avail us any thing, 
without charity, let us remember, that true charity 
is wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost 
through the truth, and will manifest itself by 
loving acts. It is a fruit of the Spirit, and a quality 
to which we cannot attain without his influence. 
Therefore, if we would grow in love, we must 
seek the aid of the loving Sanctifier, who has been 
promised unto us by our blessed Lord. God is 
willing to bestow the Spirit upon those who ask 
him, and we should ask with the earnestness of 



LOVE. 63 

those who pray for life. But we should not be 
satisfied with asking. We must prepare and open 
our hearts for his indwelling, by laying aside all 
that may displease his holy sight, " all malice and 
all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies and evil 
speakings." For if it be true, that the Lord will 
not hear those who "regard iniquity in their 
hearts," how certainly will he resent as an insult, a 
prayer for the spirit of love, from one who is 
cherishing the remembrance of some silly quarrel 
or petty afiront ! 

The means of the Spirit's communication to the 
soul, is the word of God. It is only through the 
truth that we can hope to be sanctified ; therefore 
should we, with the simplicity of children, study 
the records of grace. "As new-born babes," we 
must " desire the sincere (pure) milk of the word, 
that we may grow thereby." As we read and 
meditate upon its holy pages, the beauty of the 
Divine character will beam upon our souls, and 
beatify them by its light ; faith will bring us near 
to the bosom of Him who hath loved us with an 



64 LOVE. 

everlasting love ; and hope will drink in the future 
blessedness of a heavenly life. Cheerfully, then, 
shall we descend from the Tabor of heavenly com- 
munion, and the Pisgah of heavenly vision, to 
w r alk the path of love which leads to our eternal 
home. 

Such love will always manifest itself. Our 
blessed Lord, the perfect example of charity, 
whose footsteps every true child of God must 
follow, found it " his meat and his drink to do the 
will of his heavenly Father," and "went about 
doing good." The excellence of Job's character 
was, that " the cause he had not known he search- 
ed out." He, who is indifferent to the welfare of 
others, may chance to have few claims of charity 
obtruded upon his notice; but no truly charita- 
ble spirit need ever be at a loss, in such a world 
as this, for occasions to do good, and we may be 
sure that we are unfaithful if we be ignorant of 
them. True charity waits not for opportunities, 
but goes to seek them ; and when there is a 
will, God will always point out the way. The best 



LOVE. 65 

study of the will of God is the practice of it, for 
Christ says, " if any man will do His will, he shall 
know of the doctrine." God loves such willing 
scholars, and loves to teach them ; and they that 
walk in love will find their path to be " brighter 
and brighter unto the perfect day." 



6* 



in. 



JOY. 



Joy is that lively pleasure of the soul which 
we feel in the possession of present good, or the 
certain expectation of good in the future. Thus, 
when a man has actually obtained what he had 
desired, and which yields him delight, we say he 
enjoys it:; and when we receive news of approach- 
ing happiness, we call it joyful news. 

There is a false joy, derived from a mistaken 
estimate of that which is really worthless, or in- 
sufficient of itself to yield us happiness. The joy 
which men have in the perishing and deceitful 
pleasures of this world, like the mirth of the 

67 



68 joy. 

drunkard, has its end in sorrow. It is 

"like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore* 
All ashes to the taste." 

Solomon compares it to the burning of thorny 
making much crackling, and some smoke, but no 
abiding heat. 

The joy here spoken of is a real joy. It is a 
fruit of the Spirit. The renewed man has been 
taught to see the difference between true and 
counterfeit good. He loves God and holy living, 
because he is convinced that "godliness is great 
gain ;" and he rejoices in the assurances of faith 
that godliness is his. The more godly he is, the 
more joy he has. Nothing interferes with his joy 
but sin. It flows from God, like water from the 
fountain, pure, though sin may embitter and dis- 
colour it. It shines like light from the Sun of 
Righteousness, though sin may so sully the win- 
dows of the soul through which it passes, as to 
dim its brightness. 



joy. 69 

Christian joy can come only from God. The 
renewed man knows he is a sinner, and that the 
" wages of sin is death ;" and he hates sin, not 
only because of its future punishment, but because 
of its present pollution, and of its ofiensiveness in 
the sight of the God he loves. God, by his 
blessed Spirit, through the truth, reveals to him 
the promise of pardon for his guilt, and deliver- 
ance from his sinfulness. He is filled with joy. 
He is joyful in his escape from eternal death. He 
is joyful in the assurance of grace to live a holy 
life. He is joyful in the hope of heavenly bless- 
edness. 

He is joyful in the knowledge of God. A true 
ear has delight in perfect harmony. A true eye 
has delight in perfect proportion. So does a true 
and holy soul delight in God. He delights to 
contemplate infinite power directed by infinite 
wisdom, infinite wisdom directed by infinite good- 
ness, and infinite mercy directed by infinite truth. 
He delights in the impress of this Divine perfection 
upon all the works of the Creator, where sin has 



10 JOY. 

not clouded their beauty or shattered their form. 
He thinks of the world as God made it, as it was 
when the golden light of the primeval morning 
discovered nothing but loveliness, and innocence, 
and peace ; and he partakes of the joy of Him 
who looked upon " every thing that he had made, 
and behold, it was very good." 

He delights in the knowledge that the Creator 
is the God of providence and of grace ; and that, 
though now sin seems to rule, there is a mighty 
purpose in Christ, working through all and over 
all, to bring forth a new and more glorious crea- 
tion, a new heaven and a new earth, from which 
sin, and all that tempts to sin, shall be utterly 
cast out, that eternal righteousness may dwell in 
them, and God again pronounce them very good. 

He delights in the display of Divine perfection 
by the Divine law. "Thy testimonies," saith 
David to his God, " are the rejoicing of my heart." 
And again, "Thy statutes have been my songs in 
the house of my pilgrimage." To him, who has 
not been enlightened to know, and converted to 



JOY. 71 

love the wisdom of holiness, God's command- 
ments are grievous, because they come in the 
way of his desires, and threaten vengeance upon 
his sins. But the renewed soul loves God's laws, 
for the same reason that he loves God, because 
they are holy. Every precept of God is to him a 
direction in the way of happiness, and reveals the 
beauty of the Divine government ; and, therefore, 
every discovery of the Divine will is an occasion 
of joy. His dissatisfaction is not with the strict- 
ness of the law, but with himself for coming short 
of it ; and he desires that he may be sanctified to 
its entire obedience, not that the law may be 
reduced to the level of his ability. 

He delights especially in the Divine perfection 
as made known in the Gospel of Christ. The 
riches of the wisdom of Divine grace awaken 
his liveliest admiration. To know, that God so 
loved the world, as to give his only begotten 
Son, for the salvation of sinners; to know, that 
the same justice which requires the punishment 
of the transgressor, approves and assures the 



72 joy.' 

pardon of the penitent; to know, that by the 
dwelling of God in onr flesh as Christ the Me- 
diator, God is brought nigh to all Christ's people, 
and all Christ's people nigh to God; to know, 
that the same Holy Spirit which, as the power of 
God, effected creation, and sustained the humanity 
of Jesus in his work, is promised to dwell in him, 
to renew him to a holy life, and sustain him in 
the blessedness of obedience ; to know, that God 
the Creator, Governor, and Judge, is his God, his 
Redeemer, Sanctifier, and loving Father ; to know, 
that while on earth he may have through Christ 
the Spirit his "conversation in heaven," holding 
"fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus 
Christ," and that all things, even his trials and 
sorrows, are working together for his eternal good, 
according to the omnipotent purpose of God's 
adopting love ; to know, that when the few years 
of his pilgrimage are passed, he has an eternal 
and holy home in his Father's house, where he 
shall rejoice with all the redeemed family, and the 
innumerable company of angels who have never 



JOY. 73 

sinned ; and to know, that all this has been ac- 
complished for him, and secured to him, without 
one shadow being cast upon the Divine attributes; 
but that, on the contrary, the character of his 
adorable God has received from his salvation a 
new lustre, and that the holy intelligences 
throughout the universe will admire and glorify 
the King of salvation, as throughout eternity they 
behold the redeemed sinner growing in holy 
beauty and heavenly beauty ; — to know all this, 
must fill him with joy unspeakable and full of 
glory. Well, therefore is the Gospel called, Glad 
tidings of great joy. No wonder that Abraham 
rejoiced to see the day of salvation, though afar 
off, and was glad! No wonder that Isaiah was 
rapt in an ecstacy, and cried, "How beautiful 
upon the mountains are the feet of him that 
bringeth good tidings ! Break forth into joy, sing 
together, ye waste places of Jerusalem, for the 
Lord hath comforted his people." No wonder, 
that the converts of the Pentecost eat the bread of 
salvation "with gladness and singleness of heart," 

7 






74 JOY. 

and wherever the Gospel went there was "great 
joy in that place !" No wonder, the apostle's glad 
command to all his believing brethren, was, " Re- 
joice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Re- 
joice !" 

With such joy in his heart, the Christian finds 
on every hand, and at all times, occasion to show 
it 'forth. Wherever he is, God is his Saviour and 
his Friend. Whatever happens to him, is God's 
gracious will concerning him. Even when Pro- 
vidence is dark and mysterious, and his afflictions 
for the present seem not joyous but grievous, there 
is an awful joy, a reverent and sublime exultation 
in the thought, that though " clouds and darkness 
may be round about his God, righteousness and 
judgment are the habitation of his throne." Every 
thing calls upon him to be glad. The sun, when 
he rejoices in the morning, u as a strong man to 
run his race ;" the moon and the stars, as " they 
tell of the glory of God, and show forth his handi- 
work;" the spring, with its budding promises; 
the summer, with its mellowing plenty; and the 



joy. 75 

autumn, with its garnered stores ; even winter hath 
its benedictions around the social fireside, while 
the memory of summer and the hope of spring are 
heightened by its gloom. All the voices of nature 
are glad, for they speak of God. All the events of 
life should be joyous, for they are ordered by his 
hand. Nay, there is not a path which the Chris- 
tian is called to tread, which the Saviour walked 
not in his way, through our life, to his heavenly 
glory. There is not a footstep he is called to take 
which is not marked by the blessed feet of God in- 
carnate. Thorns and thistles are strow r n thick, 
but they are only to remind him that this is not 
his rest, and quicken his eager zeal to reach his 
sinless and joyous home. 

The Christian finds a joy in his obedience. It 
was a noble discovery of heathen wisdom, that 
virtue is the highest good, because it is its own 
reward. (Alas, that they knew not what virtue 
is !) The language of Scripture, the experience 
of the faithful angels, the blessedness of God him- 
self, all assure us that happiness is only to be 



76 JOY. 

found in holiness, and holiness in the creature is 
obedience to the commands of the Creator. They 
are the ways which infinite wisdom has marked 
out for us, and, therefore, are ways of pleasantness 
and peace. Heaven is the place of perfect blessed- 
ness, because it is the place of perfect holiness. 
We can be happy on earth only so far as we are 
holy ; and so far as we are holy we must be happy. 
So the Christian finds it. Every duty which he 
successfully attempts yields him joy. He has a 
satisfaction more lively than mere contentment, 
when he has fulfilled the will of his heavenly 
Father ; and this joy increases in proportion to 
the difficulty of the service. If his lower nature, 
the sinful world, the tempting devil, have opposed 
his purpose, but opposed it in vain, he has the joy 
of conquest, a joy well worth the sweat, and tears, 
and struggle that it cost. The joys of sin, though 
they may be easily won, are always dashed with 
bitterness ; the joys of obedience, like every thing 
else that is precious, are not gained without an 
effort, but yield rich reward in the end. " Thou 



J O Y. 11 

hast," said one that was faithful, " put gladness in 
my heart more than in the time when their corn 
and their wine increased." His joy was in his 
heart ; and though vintage and harvest should fail, 
it would not. His joy no man could take from 
him, and with it no stranger could intermeddle. 
Therefore has he left for us the safe counsel, " Of- 
fer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your 
trust in the Lord." The self-approval of the 
honest man, in the midst of poverty, is better than 
all the riches of the knave, who lives in constant 
dread of detection, and despises himself for his 
own baseness. The calmness of disciplined pas- 
sion is better than all the excesses of lust, which 
grows with what it feeds upon ; so that one calls a 
sensual liver " a deep ditch," filthy, but ever with 
room for more filthiness. The health, the cool- 
ness, and the mental soundness of temperance, are 
better than all the mad joys of the drunkard, 
which fever, and blast, and madden both body and 
soul. 

Then what a joy there is in benevolence ! What 



78 joy. 

a happy consciousness in having done good to a 
fellow creature ! The miser may gloat over his 
gold, wrung perhaps from broken hearts, certainly 
withheld from suffering wretchedness ; the osten- 
tatious voluptuary may walk through his sumptuous 
rooms, roll proudly in his gay equipage, or feast 
his parasites at his groaning board ; the ambitious 
man may trample upon the necks of his victims, 
that he may reach the cold, sharp, solitary pin- 
nacle of worldly power : but avarice, and luxury, 
and rank can yield no such pleasures as the good 
man feels, when he has wiped the tears from the 
widow's and the orphan's eye, and caused their 
hearts to sing for joy : when he has poured out 
the oil and balm of his sympathy into some bleed- 
ing bosom, brought back some wanderer from 
virtue into the way of peace, or cheered some 
darkened spirit with the light of life from the Gos- 
pel of the blessed God. " The joy of doing good," 
says a Persian poet, "is like the breeze of the 
evening to the cheek parched by the heat of the 
desert." Earth has no joy like it, for it admits 



joy. 79 

the believer to a share in the blessedness of the 
good God. It was the comfort of the Redeemer 
throughout his life of sorrows. By night he 
cheered his soul in communion with God, by day 
in going about doing good. It is the joy of 
heaven, for the blessed angels love no happiness 
so well as ministering in Christ's name to the heirs 
of salvation. Every opportunity of doing good is 
like a well of refreshing waters, opened by Divine 
love in the Baca of our pilgrimage. 

Nor is this all the joy the Christian finds in 
doing good. He rejoices that he finds in it proofs 
of God's sanctifying love. It is the fruit of the 
Spirit; the gracious manifestation that God is 
dwelling in him; that his natural corruption has 
received some check ; that his infirm purposes 
have been made successful by Divine power ; and 
that the tide of his affections has been turned from 
the ebb of evil to the flood of good. He rejoices 
that he is thus permitted, by the grace of the 
Holy Ghost, to make some returns of gratitude 
unto God, which will be acceptable to his heavenly 



80 joy. 

Father through Christ Jesus ; and that God will 
approve, for the sake of the same blessed Jesus, 
his every act of service with eternal reward when 
he rests from his labours, and his good works fol- 
low him into his heavenly heritage. Therefore it 
was, that the prophet of the Lord declared, in a 
day of gladness to the people, "The joy of the 
Lord is your strength." It is the joy which obe- 
dience yields, which confirms and animates the 
believer in his duties, and for the same reason it is 
continually increasing, because it increases obe- 
dience. 

They, who shrink from duty, will find Christ's 
yoke galling, and his burden oppressive. Every 
one who, like Jonah, attempts to fly from the obe- 
dience God enjoins, will, like Jonah, find himself 
in the deep waters. When the world is permitted 
to contend with the Spirit of God in the heart, 
there will be (unless, grieved and offended, the 
Holy One abandons it) the noise, the disquietude, 
and the wounds of conflict. To attempt the ser- 
vice of two masters must, at the best, be a fatiguing 



JOY. 81 

and anxious thing ; and so the lukewarm, the sloth- 
ful, or worldly-minded Christian will know nothing 
of spiritual joy. But the obedient soul shall be 
made glad. " Light is sown for the righteous, and 
joy for the upright in heart." Every act of faith- 
ful obedience is seed sown, which will bring forth 
a harvest of light and joy. He who walks like his 
Master, doing good on earth in his way to heaven, 
will'" drink of the rivers of God's pleasures," and 
taste the grapes of Canaan even in the desert. 

Is it asked, how is this joy consistent with the 
sadness of repentance, sorrow for the sins of 
others who keep not God's holy law, and grief 
for the dishonour of God's most holy name? 
There may seem to the unsanctified soul a para- 
dox in this, and misconception of the truth has led 
many to think that religion is a sad and gloomy 
thing, and to prefer the gaiety of the world to the 
soberness of piety. But a few words will set the 
honest inquirer right. 

Repentance is a sad thing. We must be sad, 
when we think of our sinful infamy, of the un- 






82 joy. 

grateful wrongs we have done the love of God, 
and the sorrows that it cost our Lord to purchase 
our redemption. The Christian weeps over his 
sins, the broken law of God, and the sufferings 
of Jesus. But religion only shows us the cause 
of such sorrow. The cause itself is sin. The 
Spirit probes and lays open the heart which sin 
has ulcerated, that He may cleanse, and dress, and 
heal it. Were the plague permitted to remain 
hidden, it would spread its poison through the 
whole nature, and bring on the agonies of eternal 
death. The probing may give pain, and the 
cautery anguish, yet the balm which is afterward 
applied is sweet and soothing. The joys of the 
world bring sorrow, but the sorrows of repentance 
are full of joy. If it be bitter anguish to know we 
are sinners, is it not unspeakable joy to know that 
we are saved by grace ? If the soul shudder at 
the sight of the hell it deserves, will it not exult 
in the hope of the heaven which is promised ? If 
it weep over the sorrows of Jesus on the cross, 
will it not rejoice to know that he is lifted up on 



joy. 83 

his throne, the glorified and triumphant Saviour 
of all who love him? If it lament to see the 
wrongs done to God's holy law, will it not be 
glad to see all those wrongs more than covered 
by the righteousness of Jesus ? The obstinate and 
sulky child, that resists its parent's will, is indeed 
unhappy ; but what a blessed relief it finds in the 
tears he weeps upon his parent's bosom, as he 
sobs out his confession, and knows he is for- 
given ! 

Repentance is a sad thing. It is hard to break 
through all the sinful habits we have loved, and to 
deny ourselves what fallen nature craves. It is 
hard to attempt duties we have never practised, 
and in which we are opposed by the world, the 
flesh, and the devil. The Christian's work may 
seem yet more hard to those, who see him for- 
saking the pleasures and pursuits in which they 
place all their happiness. But the renewed heart 
is more than consoled by the full conviction that 
all it leaves is sin, and all it seeks is holiness. 
Self-denial may be hard at the moment, but the 



84 joy. 

believer knows that it is life and health in the end. 
Chastisement loses its pain, when he is assured by 
it of his Father's love. He has " meat to eat that 
the world knows not of." What the world thinks 
to be pain, he thinks pleasure; what the world 
thinks pleasure, he thinks pain. " The objection," 
as good Bishop Home says, " turns out, as all 
other objections do, to the advantage of the Gospel 
which resembles a fine country in the spring sea- 
son, when the very hedges are in bloom, and every 
thorn produces a flower." 

Besides, we are to remember, that though god- 
liness has some profit in this life, the great harvest 
of it is in eternity ; so, even if it be true, that the 
Christian in this world, is of all men the most 
miserable, his joyful hope of heavenly glory is well 
worth the loss of a few pleasures here. For which 
is better, a few years of silly mirth with an eternity 
of anguish, or a few years of anguish with an 
eternity of joy ? To be cured of sin-sickness we 
must take bitter medicine ; but better take it and 
live for ever, than refuse it and die for ever. Yet, 



joy. 85 

if we look around us, it is not so certain that the 
Christian is the least happy man. The world may 
have more show of gaiety, but his calm, clear eye, 
though it be washed with tears, reveals a better 
joy within. 

It is a sad thing to look upon the wickedness 
of men, to see them dishonouring God's word, and 
going on in the way to death. So sad, that Jere- 
miah had not tears enough for it, but wished his 
eyes were fountains, and his head waters, that he 
might " weep day and night for the slain of the 
daughter of his people." Yet have we not reason 
to rejoice, that the Lord has his cause in his own 
hand, and will vindicate his power and his truth ? 
The wicked shall not prevail against him, and his 
salvation shall increase until all nations call him 
blessed, "The Lord reigneth, let the earth re- 
joice." 

It is a sad thing to see wicked men going down 

to eternal death, especially when they are near and 

dear to our hearts, and, therefore, should we pray 

earnestly, and with tears, that they may be turned 

8 



86 joy. 

from the error of their way and live. But it 
would be far worse, if God were robbed of his 
justice, so that the wicked might go unpunished. 
If God were to take no note of the wicked, where 
would be the peace and safety of his universe? 
Therefore, says David, "Let the heavens rejoice, 
and let the earth be glad . . . before the Lord: 
for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth : 
he will judge the world in righteousness, and the 
people with his truth." Sorrow for the trans- 
gressor, who suffers justly under the law, is not 
inconsistent with joy that we live under a right- 
eous and holy government. The angels in heaven 
rejoice before God, even when they see the wrath 
of his justice against his rebel subjects ; and so 
shall we, when we are permitted to join them, 
though it may seem above our pitch now. 

In heaven our joy will be full. Here, a salutary 
sorrow must mingle with it. But there, even re- 
pentance will have lost its sadness. How can that 
be ? How can the redeemed saint remember his 
sins, and look upon the Saviour whom he has 



joy. 87 

pierced, and not weep ? " We know not now, 
but," by God's grace, " we shall know hereafter." 

Joy, spiritual joy, is thus not only a privilege 
but a duty. It is a certain fruit of that Spirit, 
which renews unto holiness. " The kingdom of 
God is not meat and drink ; but righteousness and 
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." Our Saviour 
taught his Gospel to his disciples, that his "joy 
might remain in them, and that their joy might be 
full." 

Such is the experience of all true believers. 
The man that found the pearl of great price, " for 
joy went and sold all that he had" to bfay it. 
How did the Old Testament saints, though they 
had but the twilight of the day of salvation, re- 
joice in God? David is not satisfied with being 
glad himself, but would have all rejoice with him, 
even the mountains and the sea. The apostles, 
too, though in the midst of tribulation, rejoiced as 
one of them expresses it, " with joy unspeakable 
and full of glory." The apostle Paul makes it as 
much a duty to rejoice as to pray ; nay, he puts 



88 joy. 

rejoicing first. "Rejoice evermore. Pray with- 
out ceasing. In every thing give thanks ; for this 
is the will of God concerning you." 

How can we love God, and know that he loves 
us, and not be glad ? How can we trust in God, 
and know that he is our Father and our Friend, 
and not be glad? How can we believe in the 
infinite merits of the Saviour he has provided for 
us, and not be glad ? How can we serve him wil- 
lingly with our whole heart, and not find joy in 
obedience ? How can we think of the hell from 
which we are rescued, and the heaven to which 
we are destined, and not rejoice greatly ? To be 
destitute of spiritual joy is to be without love, 
without gratitude, without submission, without 
confidence, and without hope. Every true Chris- 
tian, who has " Christ formed in his heart, the 
hope of glory," should say with Mary, when she 
felt that she was to be the mother of Jesus, " My 
soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath 
rejoiced in God my Saviour." 

It is the service of such a spirit that God loves. 



joy. 89 

"Thou meetest him that rejoiceth, and worketh 
righteousness." "The Lord loveth a cheerful 
giver." He insists that the Sabbath is to be our 
delight. Nothing can offend him more than to 
call that sacrifice which he requires in mercy. 

Our joy should be continually increasing. The 
new convert may have a more sudden rapture, but 
the growing Christian has a more steady and deep- 
ening joy. The stream may leap more near the 
fountain, because it is more shallow ; but as it ex- 
pands, it flows more noiselessly, because more full. 
It is the knowledge of God, and trust in his grace, 
which awakens the believer's joy ; so, as he grows 
in knowledge and in grace, will he grow in joy. 
There may be occasional shadows, and perhaps 
darkness, when sins rise up to shut out the sun- 
light of the Gospel; but, when the heart is up- 
turned to God, and sin is banished from it, it must 
lie in brightness. It is a bad sign of our progress 
in the Divine life, when our joy increases not. It 
shows that we do not learn the truth as we ought 
to do, for the loving heart " rejoiceth in the truth." 
8* 



90 joy. 

It shows that we do not pray as we ought to do, 
for the Master has commanded us to " ask, and re- 
ceive, that our joy may be full." It shows that 
we are not faithful in obedience, as we should be, 
for it is the delight of the faithful to do God's 
will. 

This joy should be manifest. The Christian 
should never forget that he is a witness for Christ, 
and an example of Christ's religion. What a libel 
upon Christianity it is to be sad ! What a con- 
tradiction for one to wear a gloomy countenance, 
yet profess to have God in his heart ! No wonder 
the world stumbles at such inconsistency. Our 
Saviour taught his disciples, even when they 
fasted, not to wear a sad countenance, as the 
hypocrites do, but rather to appear unto men not 
to fast ; which seems to intimate that gloom and 
hypocrisy generally go together. Socrates thought 
u the thanksgivings of the Lacedemonians more 
acceptable to God, than all the sacrifices of the 
other Greeks ;" and nothing will be more likely to 
gain attention from the world to religion, than 



JOY. 91 

proof in the lives of its serious professors that it 
makes men happier than sin. 

" Let us then be glad in the Lord, and in the 
power of his might." If the Spirit of God dwell 
in us, w T e will be so ; and we shall find, too, that 
the wise man spoke truth when he said, " A merry 
heart doeth good like a medicine ;" and at last we 
shall hear the blessed invitation, " Enter ye into 
the joy of your Lord." " Here," says excellent 
Thomas Watson, aud with his sweet words we end 
our essay, " Here joy begins to enter into us, there 
we shall enter into joy. . . . What joy shall the 
soul have, wdien it bathes itself for ever in the pure 
and pleasant fountain of God's love ! If a cluster 
of grapes here be so sweet, wdiat wull the full vint- 
age be ? How should all this set us a longing for 
that place where sorrow cannot live, and joy can- 
not die !" 



IV. 



PEACE 



The blessed Spirit, which, through the truth, 
disposes the renewed man to love God and his 
fellow creatures for God's sake, and so makes 
every revelation of truth an occasion of joy, every 
event of providence a blessing, and every duty a 
pleasure, at the same time produces in his soul 
that sweet composure, tranquil contentment, and 
appearance of safety, which we call peace : for 
godly love has nothing of that uneasy fever which 
belongs to earthly passion, neither has godly joy 
the tumultuous excitement of worldly gaiety. The 
love is too secure in its satisfaction to be agitated, 

93 



94 PEACE. 

and the joy too deep and abiding for fitful trans- 
ports. " The fruit of the Spirit is — peace." 

The excellent value of peace is taught us by the 
stress, which is laid upon it throughout the Scrip- 
tures. The Gospel, the most glorious of all God's 
designs, is called "the Gospel of peace." The 
great name of God, by which he is revealed to his 
believing people, is " the God of peace." Christ, 
the blessed Saviour, is "the Prince of peace." 
Here, peace is the fruit of the Spirit. The pro- 
mise which foretold the coming salvation to the 
saints of the old dispensation was, " The Lord 
shall give his people the blessings of peace." The 
reward of evangelical obedience is peace : " Great 
peace have they which love thy law." The desire 
of the apostles for the churches they taught was, 
that " peace might be multiplied" unto them ; 
which Paul so strongly expresses when he says, 
"Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace 
always by all means." The salutation of Jesus 
was, " Peace be unto you ;" and his parting bless- 
ing, "Go in peace;" while the heaven of the 



PEACE. 95 

redeemed, where their happiness shall be complete 
in perfect holiness, is the New Jerusalem, or 
" heritage of peace." What a blessing must that 
be, which purchased for us by the merits of Jesus, 
flowing from the fullness of God the Father, dis- 
pensed by the royal will of Christ the Mediator, 
wrought in all his people by the Holy Ghost, and 
shedding a perfect beauty over the heaven of their 
reward, gives name and title to them all ! It must 
be a blessedness which, lost by the fall, the guilty 
cannot enjoy, and nothing less than the mediation 
of the Son of God can obtain for the penitent sin- 
ner; but which, belonging to the perfections of 
the holy God, he bestows only upon those who are 
made like to him in holiness, and can therefore be 
neither given nor taken away by the world. It is, 
in fact, not a single blessing, but a consequence of 
all blessings, for our peace can never be perfect so 
long as we fear any annoyance, or suffer the un- 
easiness of desire for what we do not possess. 
Hence the word is often used to signify prosperity 
and happiness. "Pray for the peace of Jerusa- 



9b PEACE. 

lem." " The meek shall inherit the earth, and 
shall delight themselves in the abundance of 
peace." 

The peace of the ever-blessed God is essential 
to his nature. It is a sublime and inconceivable 
tranquility, arising from the harmony of his in- 
finite attributes, and his infinite removal above any 
dependence upon the creatures he hath made. 
But man is dependent upon God his Creator, and 
his fellow creatures, to whom God has bound him 
by relations which he cannot break. His peace, 
therefore, must be derived from God, and can only 
be enjoyed in a conformity with the constitution 
of things which God has ordained. 

The peace of the renewed man, which is the 
fruit of the Spirit, may then be considered as 

I. Peace with God. 

II. Peace with himself. 

III. Peace with his fellow creatures. 

This order is chosen because it will appear, upon 
farther examination, that a man cannot be at peace 
with himself until he is at peace with God, nor be 



PEACE. 97 

at peace with his fellow creatures until he is at 
peace with himself. 

I. Peace with God. 

" God is love," an infinitely deep and ever- 
flowing fountain of goodness, and his loving- 
kindness is extended to all whom he may bless 
consistently with his justice and holy truth, To 
be at peace with him, therefore, is to enjoy the 
riches of blessing which his love ever bestows, 
while nothing but sin can separate us from his 
favour. 

But we are sinners, and by that sin, which 
" brought death into the world and all our wo," 
we had lost the fair inheritance of his love, and 
the happiness which that love alone can bestow. 
We became God's enemies, and, therefore, God 
became ours. "For," says Paul, "the carnal 
mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to 
the law of God, neither indeed can be ;" and " the 
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all 
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men ;" so that, 



9 



98 PEACE. 

as " the Scripture hath concluded all under sin," 
we are all " by nature children of wrath." 

In order, then, to the restoration of peace be- 
tween an offended God and sinful men, it is ne- 
cessary, on the one hand, that his just wrath be 
appeased, the pardon of our sins justified, and his 
loving kindness warranted ; and, on the other, that 
the enmity of our hearts against him be taken 
away, and we become cheerfully obedient to his 
will. The first, Christ hath accomplished by his 
sufferings, obedience, and intercession on our be- 
half; the latter is accomplished in the heart of the 
believer by the Holy Spirit, for Christ's sake. 

The wrath of God against the sinner is a just 
wrath. It is not mere impulsive anger against 
man as man, but the indignation of the righteous 
Ruler and Judge against man as a sinner. In- 
deed, it is not inconsistent with a certain pity for 
the unhappy object of the Divine vengeance; as 
we read, " God so loved the world that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have everlasting life ;" 



PEA OK. 99 

wliicli evidently means that God so pitied the sin- 
ner, while he condemned him for his wickedness, 
that he delights to save him, when it can be done 
consistently with the honour of the Divine law, 
and the aims of Divine justice. Such is the awful 
proof of the Divine justice in the sufferings of 
Christ for us, that God may pardon the penitent 
who accepts Christ's work in his behalf, and yet 
the dignity of the Divine law be sustained in a far 
higher degree than if it had never been broken, 
while none who reject Christ and continue wilful 
sinners can hope for any mercy at his hands. 
He, who spared not his own Son when he stood 
in the place of the sinner, will not spare the sinner 
who refuses to forsake his sins and return to his 
allegiance. As the apostle says, " . . . . Christ 
Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitia- 
tion through faith in his blood, to declare his 
righteousness for the remission of sins that are 
past, through the forbearance of God : to declare, 
I say, at this time, his righteousness; that he 



100 PEACE. 

might be just, and the justifier of him which be- 
lieveth in Jesus." 

In the same manner, were God to bestow his 
favour, and the unspeakable blessings which flow 
from it, upon the sinner, who, though penitent, is 
utterly unworthy of it, blessing would cease to be 
the reward of obedience, and become an arbitrary 
dispensation of God's mercy independent of jus- 
tice ; but, when Christ, the incarnate Son of God, 
himself becomes a voluntary servant of the Divine 
law, and honours it by a perfect obedience, and 
God, in reward of his righteousness, bestows his 
favour upon the sinner who is presented in 
Christ's name, he demonstrates his delight in 
righteousness, and his willingness to reward 
righteousness, and righteousness alone, with his 
highest favour. 

"When, therefore, the Holy Spirit enables the 
penitent to perceive the work of righteousness 
wrought in behalf of all those who believe by 
Jesus Christ, and to present the death of Christ 
before God as the death he deserved to die, and 



PEACE. 101 

the righteous obedience of Christ as the obedience 
he owed to the Divine law, he sees that the just 
anger of God no longer burns against him, and 
that for Christ's sake he is received again into 
favour and life. Hence the work of Christ's suf- 
fering and obedience is styled the atonement, or 
ut-one-ment, the ground upon which God and the 
believing sinner are again reconciled or made one. 
"We have peace with God through our Lord 
Jesus Christ." Wherefore Jesus said to his dis- 
ciples, " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give 
unto you ;" that is, the peace which I have pur- 
chased, and is, therefore, mine to give. For as 
God is well pleased with Christ's righteousness, so 
is he " well pleased" with Christ's people, " for his 
righteousness' sake." 

Notwithstanding the work of Christ, however, 
the connection between holiness and happiness, 
sin and misery, remains unaltered. " The wages 
of sin are" still " death," and there can be " no 
peace for the wicked." It is, therefore, only so 
far as the sinner by repentance has learned to 
9* 



ID 2 PEACE. 

delight in God and in obedience to his holy will, 
that he can enjoy the peace of God through Jesus 
Christ. Thus, the purpose of Christ was not 
merely to deliver from punishment, but to restore 
the sinner to holiness, "to save his people from 
their sins. 11 This, we have said, is the work of 
the Holy Spirit for Christ's sake. He so en- 
lightens the mind to perceive the beauty and ex- 
cellence of holiness, so sheds abroad the love of 
God through Christ in the heart, so fills the soul 
with a desire to be conformed to the image of 
God, that the believer is sweetly won to delight in 
the will of God, and to find the ways of his com- 
mandments pleasantness, and all the paths he pre- 
scribes peace. All the influences of the Spirit 
which confirm, increase, and carry on unto per- 
fection the believing sinner's peace with God, are 
sanctifying influences. This shows us the mean- 
ing of the prayer in the epistle to the Hebrews, 
" Now the very God of peace sanctify you wholly ;" 
and of the salutation, "Peace to them that are 
sanctified." (1 Corinthians, i. 2, 3). 



PEACE. 103 

From this peace with God flows, 

II. The peace of the renewed man with him- 
self. 

"We have all enough of unhappy experience to 
know that there may be such a disquiet, dissatis- 
faction, and conflict within a man's soul, as to 
render him miserable, whatever his external lot 
may be. It may be the agony of remorse for 
unexpiated crime; the quakings of fear or the 
suspense of doubt; the gnawing of envy or the 
burning of jealousy ; the fever of ambition, or the 
craving of inordinate desire ; nay, the same bosom, 
like a nest of vipers, may contain them all. These 
must be subdued or removed before the soul can 
be at peace. It is the office of the Holy Spirit 
to do this. The same gracious Power which 
assures us of peace with God, makes peace in the 
soul. 

It makes peace in the conscience. There is no 
mental anguish so great as that self-condemnation 
which we call " an evil conscience." The strong- 
est minds feel its pangs the most, while the weaker 



104 PEACE. 

are not beneath its influence. The Scripture de- 
clares it to be one of the chiefest torments of the 
damned. It is " the worm which dieth not," " a 
fire that is not quenched." It is in the soul itself 
a fearful witness for God, whom sin hath offended. 
The sinner may resist or forget it for a time, but 
like the waters of a dammed up stream, or the fires 
of a pent volcano, it will yet burst forth and rage 
with accumulated fury. Christ uses conscience to 
teach us our need of him, and awakens its terrors 
in the soul that we may be driven to his salvation 
to escape its lash. But when the Spirit has en- 
abled the heart-broken penitent to see the riches 
of Christ's mediation and rely upon it, the terrors 
of conscience subside into peace. 

This peace is not stupidity, nor hardness, nor 
perversion of conscience, such as often allows 
wicked men to go on frowardly in their evil ways, 
hut a rational relief from the sense of guilt, and a 
consciousness of better affections and aims. The 
believer no longer dreads the wrath of God, nor is 
haunted by a fearful looking for of judgment. He 



PEACE. 105 

has the pardon of his sins assured to him with the 
promise of the Divine love. He still mourns and 
hates the sins he has committed, but because of 
their wickedness, and not merely of the punish- 
ment threatened against them. He knows that he 
has dishonoured God, but yet rejoices in believing 
that Christ hath covered the dishonour, and by 
perfect obedience more than remedied his defec- 
tions. He is not only a pardoned criminal, but 
the principal consequences of his crime have been 
prevented. Before, he was aware of a spirit of 
rebellion in his heart that continually inclined him 
to commit transgressions, for which his conscience 
threatened him with judgment and made him 
afraid to think of God. Now, he is conscious of a 
prevailing disposition to love God, and do those 
things that are well pleasing in God's sight ; which 
leads him continually to implore the Divine assist- 
ance, and encourages him, though far from having 
attained the perfection in holiness he desires, to 
look to God as a pitiful Father who knows his in- 
firmities, but also knows the desire of his soul. 



106 PEACE. 

His conscience is at peace with him, a faithful 
friend, whose very wounds are wounds of love, 
rebuking only to lead in the way of truth and 
happiness. 

He has peace of mind. The narrow circle of 
human experience, the ignorance of future contin- 
gencies under which the mind labours, and the 
consequent doubt we feel as to the course we 
should pursue, and the lot that awaits us, are all 
opposed to peace. The busy inquiry of every 
mind, not utterly imbruted by unworthy passion, 
after truth, shows the sense we instinctively have 
of the torture of doubt and the pleasure of know- 
ing what is truth. But, when the renewed man 
has been taught to receive with child-like simplici- 
ty Divine truth, and to know that the great Dis- 
poser of all events is his Father and his God; 
when he believes that the will of God in every 
event is love towards him, and that by walking in 
the way of his commandments he is certain, 
through grace, of reaching everlasting life, all 
doubt is banished, and the Sun of Righteousness, 



PEACE. 107 

dissipating the clouds and the shadows, sheds 
healing peace and certainty upon his soul. He 
may walk in what to the world is darkness, and 
seem to have no light, but he will be still confi- 
dent, staying himself upon his God. 

" He that hath light within his own clear breast, 
May sit i' the centre and enjoy bright day." 

He has peace in his heart. It is impossible, 
when the affections are set entirely upon things of 
earth and time, to enjoy true peace ; for, besides 
that they will clash and conflict with each other, 
from the narrowness of the sphere to which they 
are confined, there will arise envy, and jealousy, 
and hate, towards those who may be more suc- 
cessful, or interfere in any way with our schemes 
of aggrandizement. A love of the world, if it be 
not kept in check by some superior principle, will 
always become inordinate, and may continually 
lead to discontent and strife. But the disorders 
and disquietudes of the heart are healed, when the 



108 PEACE. 

blessed Spirit lias fixed the affections upon its Al- 
mighty and Divine Friend. They go forth then 
in a right direction. There can be no excess in 
loving God, and no disappointment of a return for 
our love. Upon Him we may bestow all our 
hearts. So that the renewed man will find peace 
in bis new and holy relation to the Father of his 
spirit. He will love, and find delight in loving all 
whom God has commended to his love ;_ yet 
placing his trust for happiness upon God, his 
heart cannot be deprived of its true peace by their 
change, failure, or death. Having delight in God 
supremely, his desires of the things of earth will 
be restrained and moderated to just limits, he will 
be satisfied with a pilgrim's portion, and inclined 
neither to murmur at his own lot, nor to envy the 
lot of others. The love of God shed abroad in his 
heart will expel from it all malice, and hate, and 
envy, and quarrel, and disappointment. His 
"heart is fixed, trusting in God." 
This again leads us to consider, 



PEACE. 109 

III. The peace of tlie renewed man with his 
fellow creatures. 

It is to this peace that the apostle, in all proba- 
bility, chiefly refers in the text, and by it he in- 
tends, not an actual state of harmony with all 
men, for we cannot always secure their good dis- 
position, and unhappily, the practice of Christian 
duty too often provokes their dislike and persecu- 
tion of Christ's people ; but a peaceable temper 
and carriage, such as secures us from any blame- 
worthiness in the event of their quarreling with 
us, and would secure their good will if they acted 
fairly and justly towards us. This temper must 
result from peace with God and our own souls ; 
for he who is at peace with God, the Ruler of all, 
and enjoys the blessings of his favour, will have no 
disposition to quarrel with his fellow men; and he 
who has confined his desires and aims within* 
proper limits, will have no occasion. 

It would be difficult to enlarge upon this duty 
without repeating much that we have said of 
Christian love, or anticipating what is yet to be 
10 



110 PEACE. 

said of long-suffering, gentleness, goodness and 
meekness. Yet it should be remarked, that, 
though all these graces testify to our peaceful dis- 
position, and are well calculated to promote peace, 
the aim of securing peace, or of living peaceably 
with all men, should continually be in our minds. 
The renewed man has a horror of all war except 
with sin. Delighting in love himself, the dislike, 
or offensive conduct of others to him, must give 
him pain. He ought, when it is unavoidable, to 
submit to it with long-suffering, and meek forgive- 
ness. Yet it will be submission to a trial, which, 
if it were God's will, he would fain avoid. Every 
means, therefore, of preserving harmony with his 
fellow men, consistent with a faithful discharge of 
-duty, will be employed by him. He will be 
'Cautious to avoid all appearance of evil, and, not 
satisfied with a consciousness of good intentions, 
he will endeavour to make those good intentions 
appear. For it often happens, that the very way 
in which some men attempt to do good has a 
tendency to provoke, and the endurance, with 



PEACE. Ill 

patience, of anger when provoked, does not ex- 
piate the fault of having provoked it by misguided 
zeal or incautious approaches. Thus, a contro- 
versialist may think he contends for the truth 
from a love of truth, and of men's souls which are 
to be benefited through the truth, yet, if he use 
language, or arrogant censure, in such a way as is 
calculated, from the laws of our common nature, 
to irritate and wound, he is verily guilty of break- 
ing peace. Or, one may feel himself bound in 
faithfulness to point out to his neighbour his 
faults, and rebuke them, yet if he do so roughly 
and bluntly, the goodness of his aim will hardly 
excuse the ill consequences of the means. Or, it 
may happen that another may see that his neigh- 
bour, whom he sincerely loves, has from ignorance 
or error acquired a most unreasonable prejudice or 
dislike against him, yet, however unreasonable it 
may be, it will not be enough for him to endure it 
patiently, unless he has taken all pains to remove 
his prejudice and convince him of his error. 
" Therefore," says Paul, " let us follow after the 



112 PEACE. 

things that make for peace ;" and again, " Follow 
peace with all men." It is generally a bad sign 
of a Christian's temper when he is frequently get- 
ting into quarrels. " They that will live godly in 
Christ Jesus must suffer persecution ;" but the 
Christian has no right to court persecution, and 
there is great danger that he, whose manner pro- 
vokes others against him, will become angry him- 
self in turn. Many a man, who thinks himself a 
martyr, and by partial friends is characterized as 
one, may find himself in the end to have been lit- 
tle better than a pragmatical intermeddler, and 
rash disturber of the peace. Our blessed Lord, it 
is true, went to his death through the malice of 
those whom his love would have saved, but if we 
would share in his glory as well as in his cross, we 
must be like him, and " neither strive, nor cry, nor 
let our voice be heard in the streets." " It must 
needs be that offences come, but wo unto that man 
by whom the offence cometh." " It were better 
for him that a millstone were hanged about his 
neck and he cast into the sea," Oh ! never let us 



PEACE. 113 

forget that the Gospel came to bring "peace on 
earth, and good will towards men !" 

What avail will it be to ns thai there is a way 
of reconciliation to God, unless we are ourselves 
at peace with him ? Let us, then, seek the aid of 
that blessed Spirit who alone can seal peace upon 
our hearts. It is a dreadful thing to be ignorant 
whether God be our enemy or our friend. It is 
our own fault if he be our enemy, for though we 
deserve nothing but wrath, he is ready to be our 
friend. for the Holy Spirit to open our eyes, 
that we may acquaint ourselves with the holy 
beauty and love of God, and be at peace ! 

Let us distrust all peace which comes not to us 
through the merits of Jesus. If God love us not 
for Christ's sake, he is our enemy, for he " will by 
no means clear the guilty." To think ourselves at 
peace wit^h him without a trust in Christ alone, is 
to reject the only advocate we can have with the 
Father, and to challenge the justice of God against 
our souls. Nor can we be at peace with him un- 
less we enjoy his communion. It is not a barren 
10* 



114 PEACE. 

treaty which true faith makes with God. It is a 
covenant of blessing on his part, and of cheerful 
obedience on ours. The friend of God loves his 
communion, loves his service, loves his word, 
loves his people. It is an alliance offensive and 
defensive. He takes us under his protection, and 
we contend for his cause. Therefore will we 
delight to draw near unto him, and look forward 
to that blessed world where the union will be com- 
plete and eternal. 

Let us cherish this holy peace : peace with God, 
peace with our own souls, peace with our fellow 
men. Nothing will make life pass so pleasantly, 
the path of duty seem so easy, the trials of earth 
so light, or the hope of heaven so full of glory. 
Nothing will liken us so much to God himself. 
What infinite tranquility there must be in the 
Divine Mind ! What perfect concord in his holy 
attributes ! How calmly must he look down upon 
all the changes and events of his vast dominions f 
Yet they, who rest in his loving bosom, taste of 
this sublime composure. " The peace of God, 



PEACE. 115 

which passeth all understanding, keeps their 
hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus." "The 
wicked are like a troubled sea, casting up mire 
and dirt ;" but the pure in heart, like a clear foun- 
tain, whose waters are unruffled by passion, and 
unpolluted by earth and sense, reflect from their 
tranquil bosom the serenity of the heaven which 
smiles above them, and the glory of the Sun of 
Righteousness. . " Grace be unto us, and peace be 
multiplied !" 



LONG-SUFFERING. 



The composition of this term might lead some 
to think, that the apostle intends merely a for- 
bearing and forgiving temper towards those who 
insult or injure us ; and, indeed, the early Chris- 
tians, exposed as they were to constant persecu- 
tion and contempt, had great need of such grace ; 
but " long-suffering " means yet more. His idea 
is exactly expressed by longanimity, or that en- 
during courage and fortitude derived from confi- 
dence in the faithfulness of God, and a sure expec- 
tation of final deliverance, which sustains the 
believer through a long period of labour and trial. 
It is patience having " her perfect work." 

lit 



118 LONG-SUFFERING. 

In the days of the apostle, this world offered 
but little inducement to a profession of Christian- 
ity, but on the contrary, if for this life only they 
had hope in Christ, they were of all men the most 
miserable. Daily threatened with confiscation of 
their goods, stripes, imprisonment and death, by 
their enemies without, they were sorely tried by 
the inconsistent lives and ambitious heresies of 
some within the Church, while in their most zeal- 
ous attempts to do good, they often met with little 
or no apparent success. It was, therefore, for the 
crown of life awaiting them beyond the grave, 
that they laboured and suffered. They " looked 
not upon the things which are seen and temporal, 
but upon those which are not seen and eternal." 
To encourage them in perseverance, the apostles 
dwelt much upon the glory which would be re- 
vealed at the " appearing of the great God and 
our Saviour Jesus Christ," and the joys of heaven, 
as the recompense of gracious reward. 

The afflicted Christians were, however, liable to 
one or the other of two temptations. They might 






LONG-SUFFERING. 119 

be discouraged because of the long delay of their 
reward, and faint; or they might become impa- 
tient, and presumptuously desire to receive it 
before the time of their rest had come. As the 
apostle said to the Hebrews, " Ye have need of 
patience, that after ye have done the will of God, 
ye might receive the promise." Hence one of the 
fruits of the Spirit in the character of the regene- 
rate is " LONG-SUFFERING." 

We are in these days happily delivered from 
the bloody persecutions which tried the faith of 
the primitive disciples, yet the world is still a 
world of sin, and we meet with many temptations 
to relax our zeal and industry in the Christian 
life. Few of us are too eager for our heavenly in- 
heritance ; alas ! our hearts cling too closely to 
the things of this life ; but we are all apt to be- 
come restless under trial, and weary of well-doing 
before the reward is won. 

Let us, therefore, 

I. Meditate on the excellence of the grace of 
long-suffering. 



120 LONG-SUFFERING. 

II. Consider some of the occasions which spe- 
cially require its exercise. 

I. The excellence of the grace of long-suffering. 

It is one of God's own attributes. He pro- 
claimed his own name to be " the Lord, the Lord 
God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and 
abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy 
for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, 
and sin, and that will by no means clear the 
guilty." By the apostle in Romans, he is called 
" the God of patience." God is, indeed, infinitely 
above those disturbances of pain and vexation, to 
which the finite creature may be subject; yet the 
restraining of his just anger against the trans- 
gressor, and his patient waiting for the execution 
of his glorious designs, are declared to be excel- 
lences of his God-like nature. It would be nothing 
for him to sweep all the army of sinners into in- 
stant death, but he shows the glory of his character 
in so loving the world, notwithstanding its rebel- 
lion, as to provide for us a Saviour, and through 



LONG-SUFFERING. 121 

him to send his Spirit ; continuing to give tem- 
poral blessings to the evil and the good, and 
though provoked every moment, and his long- 
suffering itself made an encouragement to sin, 
still waiting, that peradventure the sinner may 
repent. Upon what daily blasphemies and un- 
godly crimes, upon what nightly impurities and 
nameless horrors must God look down ! What 
contempt of his law, what neglect of his Gospel, 
what hardness and infidelity of heart must his all- 
seeing eye discover ! Yet his sun still shines, his 
rain descends, his fruitful seasons change, and 
(blessed be his holy name !) his Gospel is offered, 
his Sabbaths return, his Spirit strives, and the 
strait gate of life standeth open. He is the holy 
and the just God, who will by no means clear 
the guilty, yet he is the long-suffering and the 
patient God. There is reason for his long-suffer- 
ing. His mercy waits, but he is sure of his 
power. His purposes may seem to be delayed, 
but can never be defeated. The end and "the 
time of the end,' 7 and the means of its accomplish- 
11 



122 LONG-SUFFERING. 

ment, are chosen by Mm in wisdom, and made 
certain by his sovereignty. God can be patient 
and long-suffering without loss or injury to his 
Divine glory. So may the child of God, who by 
the Holy Spirit has been renewed into his image. 
The same providence which secures God's glory, 
secures his salvation. His eternal interests are 
identified with God's kingdom. Relying upon the 
wisdom, and the power, and the truth of God, he 
can wait unto the end. 

It is characteristic of the blessed Saviour. 

" Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an ex- 
ample that we should follow in his steps." How 
patiently did he endure all the sorrows of his 
lot, the fickleness of friends, the rejection of " his 
own," the " contradiction of sinners against him- 
self," the agonies of anticipated suffering, the 
mockeries of his ignominious trial, and the tor- 
tures of his cross ! At any moment he might 
have prayed the Father, and legions of angels 
would have flown to execute vengeance upon his 
cruel enemies and false friends, yet did he suffer 



LONG-SUFFERING. 123 

long with all. " When reviled, lie reviled not 
again ; when he suffered, he threatened not." 
Whence came his patience and long-suffering ? 
" He committed himself unto him who judgeth 
righteously." " For the joy that was set before 
him, he endured the cross, despising the shame." 
He loved the w r orld, and was willing to suffer all 
for its sake, but he knew his reward was sure, and 
that his glorious kingdom w r ould certainly be given 
him by his righteous Father. And now, though 
seated upon that mighty throne, surrounded by all 
the ministry of power in heaven and earth, how 
patiently he waits for the final consummation ! 
How he bears with the lukewarmness of his peo- 
ple, and the opposition of the world to his cause ! 
He has received the promise, that unto him every 
knee shall bow, and seated at the right hand of 
God, 'he " expects (or waits) until all his enemies 
be made his footstool." Jesus is patient and long- 
suffering, because, while full of mercy, he is confi- 
dent of his final triumph. So may the believer in 
Jesus be. He is a member of Christ's spiritual 



124 LONG-SUFFERING. 

body, and he will triumph with his blessed Head. 
If he be a partaker of Christ's sufferings, he will 
also be a partaker of his glory, when it shall be 
revealed. His Lord's triumph will be his own. 
Therefore, sharing in the kingdom, he shares also 
in the patience of Jesus Christ. (Rev. i. 9). 

How long-suffering is the Holy Spirit in his 
dealings with sinful men ! 

It is his office to plead with men by his truth, 
that they may repent, and all the various and mul- 
tiplied means of grace prove his gracious zeal for 
the salvation of our souls. But how many con- 
tinue to despise his truth, reject his warnings, and 
deafen their ears to his persuasions, insulting and 
resisting him in his official character as the advo- 
cate of God's claims with men ! Yet bearing so 
long as he does with them, God considers it neces- 
sary to warn us that " his Spirit will not always 
strive," but that there will be a limit even to his 
Divine forbearance. Those, who are ultimately 
converted by his grace, for a long time resist him, 
and many a sermon, and Sabbath, and sacrament 



LONG-SUFFERING. 125 

is despised by them ; yet he bears with all, until 
he subdues them to his love. Even after conver- 
sion, with how much sin does the Holy Spirit 
contend in those hearts which he has taken for his 
abode ! How many doubts and sinful errors are 
there ! How many unworthy and impure thoughts ! 
How much pride, and malice, and uncharitable- 
ness ! Yet does he not abandon us to our sinful 
folly, but continues to fight against our depravity, 
and deliver us from the power of our enemies. He, 
too, though full of mercy and compassion, is cer- 
tain of his final triumph. So may the Christian, 
who is a living temple of the Holy Ghost, be. 
The same love for the souls of men, the same 
merciful judgment of their errors, the same for- 
bearance with their opposition, will make him 
patient and long-suffering ; for he knows that the 
truth will prevail, and that the delay of God to 
vindicate his power by his wrath, will not impair 
the strength of his arm, while it proves the rich- 
ness of his grace. 

Long-suffering is a remarkable trait in the 



11 



* 



126 LONG-SUFFERING. 

character of every eminent saint we read of in 
the Scriptures. 

" Behold," saith an apostle, " we count them 
happy who endure." " Suffering affliction" has 
been the furnace in which God has ever refined 
the gold of his saints. How patient must the 
righteous Abel have been with his cruel and 
malignant brother ! How patient must Noah 
have been during that one hundred and twenty 
years, when the ark was building, and his preach- 
ing met with nothing but scorn ! Solitary in good- 
ness, he never murmured nor fainted in his trust. 
What is the history of the patriarchs, but a his- 
tory of faith and patience inheriting the promises ? 
Moses was meek above all the men who were in 
the earth, never, so far as we can learn, but in one 
instance, allowing his spirit to grow hasty, either 
from the contradiction of the ungrateful Israelites 
or the chastening of God. He " chose rather to 
suffer affliction with the people of God, than to 
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." We 
" have heard of the patience of Job ;" but what 



LONG-SUFFERING. 127 

was the lot of all the prophets, all the apostles, the 
confessors, the martyrs? What is now the ex- 
perience of every one, who endeavours to lead a 
holy life, and to do good, in this wicked and gain- 
saying world? Without patience, who can pre- 
vail? 

Therefore is long-suffering or courageous pa- 
tience made a special and necessary mark of 
sincerity in the profession of the Gospel. The 
apostle Paul beseeches us "to walk worthy of 
the vocation wherewith we are called, with all 
lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, for- 
bearing one another in love ; endeavouring to keep 
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ;" and 
he prays for the Colossian Christians that they 
may be u strengthened with all might, according 
to God's glorious power, unto all patience and 
long-suffering with joyfulness." 

Nay, patience is the principal virtue which the 
Holy Ghost employs in the perfection of the be- 
liever's character. "For whatsoever things were 
written aforetime, were written for our learning, 



128 LONG-SUFFERING. 

that we, through patience and comfort in the 
Scriptures, might have hope. Now," adds the 
apostle, "the God of patience and of consolation, 
grant you to be like minded, one toward another, 
according to Christ Jesus.' 7 In this spirit Paul 
declares, "We glory in tribulations also, knowing 
this, that tribulation worketh patience, and patience 
experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh 
not ashamed.'" Here we find patience in tribu- 
lation, ,the basis of the rest. So James also: "My 
brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers 
temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your 
faith worketh patience. But let patience have her 
perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, 
wanting nothing." Here patience is the finishing 
of the work, as we have just seen it to be the 
beginning. Perfect patience is perfect Christianity. 
Is faith necessary to a Christian? How can one 
believe in the love of God by Jesus Christ, and not 
be patient? To be impatient is to doubt either 
God's wisdom or his love. "Be patient, therefore, 



LONG-SUFFERING. 129 

brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, 
the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of 
the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he 
receive the early and the latter rain. Be ye also 
patient ; stablish your hearts ; for the coming of 
the Lord draweth nio-h." If the husbandman be 
patient through faith in the God of providence, 
how much more should we through faith in the 
God of grace ? "Not my will, but thine be done," 
is the language of patient faith, or faithful patience. 
Is hope necessary to a Christian? How can Ave 
have hope without patience? " Faith is the sub- 
stance of things hoped for." The certainty and 
liveliness of our hope in things to come, should 
have the effect to make us bear with patience the 
toil and trial through which we attain to them. As 
Paul reasons for us: "Even we ourselves groan 
within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, which is, 
the redemption of our body. For we are saved by 
hope ; but hope that is seen, is not hope ; for what a 
man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we 



130 LONG-SUFFERING. 

hope for that we see not, then do we with patience 
wait for it." 

Is love necessary to a Christian ? Patience and 
long-suffering prove love. For how can I love 
God, and delight in his will and glory, yet be 
impatient of that providence by which his will is 
done, and his glory secured ? How can I love my 
fellow men, as God in Christ loved them, and not 
be long-suffering with their faults, their errors, or 
their enmity ? 

We see, then, how excellent a grace this long- 
suffering is. In the words of Bishop Home, 
(taken by him from Tertullian,) " Patience com- 
mends us to God, and keeps us his. Patience is 
the guardian of faith, the preserver of peace, the 
cherisher of love, the teacher of humility. Pa- 
tience governs the flesh, strengthens the spirit, 
sweetens the temper, stifles anger, extinguishes 
envy, subdues pride, bridles the tongue, refrains 
the hand, tramples upon temptations, endures per- 
secutions, consummates martyrdom. Patience 
produces unity in the Church, loyalty in the 



LONG-SUFFERING. 131 

state, harmony in society,* and peace in families. 
She comforts the poor and moderates the rich. 
She makes us meek in prosperity, cheerful in ad- 
versity, and unmoved by reproach. She teaches 
us to forgive those who injure us, and to be the 
first in asking forgiveness of those we have in- 
jured. She adorns the woman, and approves the 
man; is loved in the child, praised in the youth, 
and admired in the old. Her countenance is calm 
and serene as the cloudless face of heaven, and no 
wrinkle is seen upon her brow. Her eyes are 
as the dove's for meekness, yet full of cheerful- 
ness and joy. Her complexion is the colour of 
innocence, and her mouth is lovely in silence. . . 
She rides not in the whirlwind and the stormy 
tempest of passion, but her throne is the humble 
and contrite heart, and her kingdom the kingdom 
of peace." 

To make our meditation the more practical, let 
us 

II. Consider some of the occasions which spe- 
cially require the exercise of long-suffering. 



132 LONG-SUFFERING. 

One of these is wliqn we suffer wrong from our 
fellow men. At such a time, the spirit of the rep- 
tile, which turns when trodden upon, prompts us 
to revenge. Nothing is easier than to show such 
a malicious courage. But the spirit of Christ and 
heaven says, Be long-suffering. In doing us 
wrong they sin against God, yet he bears with 
them. So the world treated Christ, yes, and with 
unspeakably greater cruelty, yet he bore with them ; 
and the Holy Ghost, as we have reason to belipve, 
made some of his very murderers the first converts 
of grace at the Pentecost. What right have we 
then to revenge ? How patient and merciful 
should we be to our enemies ? They are only the 
instruments in the hands of God. He but permits 
them to wrong us, because he sees it will be good 
for our souls. In being impatient of them, there- 
fore, we are impatient of God. 

" When men of spite against us join, 
They are the sword, the hand is thine." 

Teach us, then, O God, to "humble ourselves 



LONG-SUFFERING. 133 

under thy mighty hand, that we may be exalted in 
due season !" 

If we never suffered wrong, when would there 
be an opportunity for forgiveness, for magnani- 
mity, for patient reliance upon God's justice ? 

A second occasion is, when our fellow Chris- 
tians fall into sin or error. The spirit of the 
world, which is ever ready to hide its own faults 
in declamations about virtue, at once prompts us 
to condemn the sinner, and cast him out. It is 
indeed trying, when the believer sees the cause of 
Christ suffering through the faults of his servants. 
But the spirit of heaven bids us be patient and 
long-suffering. We are sinners even as they are. 
Were it not for Divine grace, we should fall into 
the same transgressions. Yet God has borne with 
us, and he now bears with them. It is his law 
and his Gospel, and his cause which suffer. If he, 
then, be long-suffering, how much more should 
we ? " Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault ; 
ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the 



12 



] 34 I/ONG-SUFFERING. 

spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou 
also be tempted." 

So also with the errorist. Perhaps there is no 
occasion when wrath is less justifiable, than when 
excited by a contrariety of opinion. What a 
pride and self-consequence must there be in the 
mind of one, who, setting himself up for a judge, 
requires every one to think as he does, or be pro- 
nounced a knave or fool ! Is our own judgment 
perfect ? Must every man who differs from us be 
dishonest? Christian meekness will always an- 
swer, No. Against opinions which we firmly be- 
lieve to be hurtful, because contrary to the word 
of God, we should contend, and endeavour to 
establish the truth in their stead; but, towards 
errorists themselves, we should exercise a meek 
and long-suffering charity. The holy God of 
truth and of the Church is long-suffering with us, 
and long-suffering with them. It is against him 
they oppose themselves, and his truth they deny. 

Surely, then, we have no right to be more se- 
vere than God. Who made us the judges of our 



LONG-SUFFERING. 135 

fellow sinners ? Even when the discipline of the 
Church is required, that discipline should be so 
mingled with love and gentleness toward the of- 
fender, as to show that it is right zeal for God, 
and not the triumph of party, for which it is ex- 
erted. 

A third occasion is, when we suffer under the 
immediate chastisement of God. It is his wise 
infliction. He never afflicts ' us but for our good. 
We drink from the cup of the Master, and are 
baptized with the baptism of all his most faithful 
followers. How patiently, then, should we en- 
dure with such a guardian, and such sympathy ! 
Heaven is an unspeakably rich reward, worth in- 
finitely more than we can suffer in reaching it, or 
than we must suffer to be fitted for it. It is of 
the mercy of God, that we are not now suffering 
in hell. Let us, then, reckoning " that the sorrows 
of this present time are not worthy to be compared 
with the glory which shall be revealed," and re- 
membering that " Christ also suffered for us, 



136 LONG-SUFFERING. 

leaving us an example that we should follow his 
steps," "be patient in tribulation." 

Another occasion is, when we are called to 
labour long in the cause of God, with little or no 
success. This is certainly among the most severe 
trials to which the Christian is subject. Yet it is 
one in which he is not alone. It was the expe- 
rience of Noah, and all the prophets. It was the 
experience of the Master himself. "He was de- 
spised and rejected of men ;" yet he was faithful 
unto death. His reward did come, though the 
travail of his soul was long. It is our privilege, as 
well as duty, to labour ; it is God's office to give 
the increase of our work. Shall we dictate to 
him how he should manage his own cause ? The 
true soul labours not for personal success, but for 
God's glory. That glory is sure. It is His own. 
In his own time and in his own way he will ac- 
complish it. He will not ask whether we were 
successful, but whether we were faithful. It is by 
patient continuance in well-doing that we attain to 
glory and honour. Let us, then, trust God in the 



LONG-SUFFERING. 137 

darkness as well as in the light, in the winter as 
well as in the summer, the seed time as well as the 
harvest. " Be not weary in well-doing, for in due 
season we shall reap if we faint notP It is the 
Lord's cause ; let us then " commit our way unto 
him, and he will bring it to pass." " Take, my 
brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the 
name of the Lord, for an example of suffering af- 
fliction and of patience." 

To cultivate this grace of long-sufTering, let us 
look for the influences of that Holy Spirit, sent by 
the God of patience for the sake of the patient 
Jesus, who alone can work it in our hearts. 

Let us meditate much upon the Holy Scriptures, 
which contain so many proofs of God's faithfulness 
to his patient people, and such rich promises of 
eternal recompense for our trials. 

Let us delight in anticipating our heavenly rest, 
that its hope may cheer us under present trial. 

Let us guard against every rising of impatience, 
and account ourselves unfaithful, disrespectful and 
rebellious, until we can, like little children, sustain- 
12* 



138 LONG-SUFFERING. 

ed by our Father's arms, rest ourselves and all our 
anxieties upon his loving bosom. 

So may we come to share in the joys of those 
who came out of great tribulation, and cast our 
crowns of glory at the feet of the patient Lamb 
that was slain, but now liveth and reigneth ever- 
more. 



VI. 



GENTLENESS, 



Perhaps no grace is less prayed for, or less 
cultivated, than gentleness. Indeed, it is consider- 
ed rather as belonging to natural disposition, or 
external manners, than as a Christian virtue ; and 
seldom do we reflect that not to be gentle, is sin. 
Yet here we find it among "the fruits of the 
Spirit." James also, when he describes " the wis- 
dom from above," says, "it is first pure, then 
peaceable, gentle." Paul, in writing to the Corin- 
thians, when he appeals to them in the name of 
Him who was the incarnation of that Divine wis- 
dom, and the example of Christian character, be- 

139 



140 GENTLENESS. 

seeches "by the meekness and gentleness of 
Christ." And David long before, while blessing 
God for his salvation, had exclaimed, " Thy gentle- 
ness hath made me great." It well becomes us, 
therefore, to meditate upon a quality which bears 
the impress of Divine beauty, as it shines in the 
face of Jesus Christ, and proves him who possesses 
it to have been born of the Spirit, taught by the 
Father, and transformed into the image of his dear 
Son. 

Gentleness has been defined to be " a sweetness 
of speech and manners ;" but it is rather a sweet 
mildness of temper, manifested in words, address, 
and general demeanour. 

The Greek term in the text signifies literally, 
an obliging disposition ; that applied by James to 
the wisdom from above, a yielding disposition. 
Paul uses the same where our translators have 
written gentleness of Christ; and the Septuagint 
renders the word in Psalm xviii. 35, the gentle- 
ness of God, by one expressive of parental tender- 
ness in the education of children. Our own word 



GENTLENESS. 141 

"gentle" once meant well born, and gentleness is 
that mild and courteous demeanour which distin- 
guishes the refined and educated from the rude 
and barbarian. 

Christian gentleness is not to be confounded with 
meekness, for meekness is afterwards named as a 
distinct grace ; and we read both of the meekness 
and gentleness of Christ. The difference cannot 
be better stated than it has been by Macknight, 
who says, " Meekness is a passive virtue, and 
consists in the bearing of injuries and provoca- 
tions, without wrath or resentment ; whereas gen- 
tleness hath more of the nature of an active virtue, 
and exerts itself in a mild and obliging manner of 
speaking and acting."* The one bears with 
oppression or harshness ; the other essays to win 
kindness by manifesting kindness. 

James distinguishes also between gentleness and 
easiness to be entreated; for the first is, as we 
have seen, a mild and pleasing disposition, the 

* Macknight after Crellius. 



142 GENTLENESS. 

latter, a candid openness to conviction, and a 
willingness to be led in the right way. 

It is neither love nor peace, but the sweet and 
amiable temper and manner resulting from them, 
and persuasive of love and peace in others towards 

118. 

It is, moreover, utterly different from the hollow 
courtesy or sycophantic pliancy, so frequently 
characterizing the politeness of the world, which 
men use, either because they fear to displease, or 
wish to gain the favour of others for their selfish 
advantage. Gentleness is not at all inconsistent 
with the strictest adherence to truth, even when 
that truth itself is most offensive to the depraved 
heart, or with a fearless and honest rebuke of 
wrong ; though the gentle person takes care that 
he adds nothing by his own manner likely to of- 
fend, but, on the contrary, endeavours to present 
the truth, or administer the rebuke, in such a way 
as to recommend the one, and sweeten the other. 
As David says, "Let the righteous smite me, it 
shall be a kindness ; and let him reprove me, it 



GENTLENESS. 143 

shall be an excellent oil, which will not break my 
head." We have, happily, through the grace of 
Christ, instances of persons who, with great sua- 
vity of demeanour and mildness of speech, are 
yet remarkable for their unwavering integrity of 
opinion, and faithful advices to their erring friends. 
Indeed, the common sense of the world always 
imputes cowardice to the blustering, and selfish- 
ness to the rude, as it does cunning to the flatterer, 
and insincerity to the ever-assenting. 

Gentleness is a virtue of the heart, renewed by 
the Spirit of peace and love. The Christian is 
gentle, because he is humble from a sense of his 
unworthiness and dependence upon God's grace. 
He is subdued by contrition, and reverent through 
devotion. His temper is chastened, and there is 
no surer sign of a repentance which needeth not to 
be repented of, than quietness of spirit. "Lord," 
saith David, "my heart is not haughty, nor mine 
eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great 
matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I 
have behaved and quieted myself as a child that 



144 GENTLENESS. 

is weaned of his mother ; my soul is even as a 
weaned child." 

The Christian is gentle because he is benevo- 
lent. The same Spirit who taught him quietness 
before God, has taught him love towards men. 
All that he does and says will therefore be amia- 
ble and kind, for he wishes to do them good and 
to make them happy. Love always desires love 
in return, and so he will not be satisfied with the 
consciousness of love for them in his heart, but 
seek that they may be convinced of his affection, 
and receive his efforts to serve them as the words 
and deeds of a generous friend, who finds his own, 
in their welfare. 

Gentleness is thus opposed to passionateness and 
irritability. There are some professing Chris- 
tians, and among those whom, in the judgment of 
charity, we consider sincere Christians, who seem 
willing to do every thing for Christ and their fellow 
men but curb their own temper. They are sound 
in their religious opinions, faithful in the use of 
privileges, industrious and liberal in every benevo- 



GENTLENESS. 115 

lent enterprise, but at the same time ready to 
fire at trie slightest shadow of offence, and some- 
times at the imao-mation of a shadow. The Chris- 
tian friends who love them most, are never at ease 
in their presence, lest some unguarded word or 
gesture, or omission of word or gesture, should 
excite their anger. Their homes are continually 
disturbed and unquiet. Their children watch 
their clouding brows with dread, and fear rather 
than respect them, for nothing so destroys respect 
for a superior as his want of self-command. The 
partners of their bosoms live in a constant anxiety, 
never knowing at what moment their fitful and 
unreasonable petulance may break forth. Even 
their benefactions lose their grace, and forfeit 
gratitude, for few have strength enough to bear 
at once the weight of obligation and the insults of 
anger. The loveliness of Christian character is 
wanting. The countenance may be fair and the 
features well-formed, but they will seem hateful 
and repulsive if distorted by passion ; and the 
sweetest voice grows harsh and shrill when not 
13 



146 GENTLENESS. 

modulated by kindness. In vain the world looks 
to them for an earnest of those mild graces with 
which religion has promised to bless earth and 
consummate heaven. It is true, much allowance 
must be made for physical temperament and natu- 
ral disposition, and such persons, in their peni- 
tent moments, are fond of saying that none know 
but themselves the temptations which they suffer. 
This pleads for our charity; but they should re- 
member that the influence of religion is to subdue 
the body, and change the natural disposition. 
They should think, too, of the scandal they cause 
to the world, the ill example they set their house- 
holds, the unhappiness they give their friends, and 
all this while they bear the peaceful name of Chris- 
tian, as followers of the gentle Jesus, the Lamb of 
God, and Prfrice of Peace. They know not what 
evil they do, or what good they prevent, by each 
silly burst of idle anger. 

It is opposed to arrogance and haughtiness. 
There are those who never speak but in a tone 
of command, or without a manner which seems 



GENTLENESS. 147 

to say, I am speaking* to an inferior. Whether 
this arises from pride of rank, pride of wisdom, 
or pride of righteousness, it is inconsistent equally 
with religion and good sense. For while religion 
levels all ranks, at least so far as to make us all 
one in Christ Jesus, it is most generally found 
that those accustomed to an elevated station are 
the most affable to those less fortunate in life ; and 
while the world resents and sneers at the airs of 
those whose heads are turned by new riches or 
new office, they applaud, without envy, others, who 
show themselves superior to such weakness as in- 
toxication from prosperity. True wisdom, the 
wisdom from above, is ever easy to be entreated, 
and the apostle James speaks of "the meekness of 
wisdom." God, the Father of lights, never up- 
braideth any who ask wisdom of him ; and how 
can one taught by him be arrogant towards a 
fellow pupil of the same Teacher ! The wisest- 
men even in this world's science are ever the most 
lowly in their pretensions, and the countenance 
of the true philosopher gains new gentleness and 



148 GENTLENESS. 

serenity with every year of study. As for the 
pride of righteousness, it is an absurdity. For 
how can a man be proud in humility, and arro- 
gant in love, and presuming in meekness? We 
are the witnesses of Christ, his representatives on 
earth, and none ever came to him or met him in 
the way, but found him lowly in demeanour and 
kind in speech. He took infants to his blessed 
bosom, he comforted the sinner that wept at his 
feet, and he bade even the woman taken in crime 
to go and sin no more. There is a dignity in re- 
ligion, but it is the dignity of goodness, a dignity 
that can stoop without degradation to the lowest, 
and seek to raise the vilest without contamination. 
That is a palty counterfeit, which must preserve 
one unchanging attitude and a distant reserve, 
lest a movement should betray the artifice, or a 
nearer inspection dissolve the charm. The Son 
of God was gentle, and so must all God's children 
be. 

There is another spirit which often follows the 
child into the man, and sometimes into the Chris- 



GENTLENESS. 149 

tian, to which gentleness is opposed, and that is 
sulkiness. This arises not so much from pride, as 
from a dissatisfaction with one's self, and a ma- 
lignant wish to communicate dissatisfaction to 
others. It is chiefly seen in those who have taken 
offence at some trifle, which they are ashamed 
even to confess or to charge the offender with ; 
and in those who, after a quarrel, which they 
know they ought to make up, are unwilling to 
show any advances. You will see one of these, 
on the approach of the object of dislike, with a 
moody, stupid countenance, a dull and fallen eye, 
and a pouting, hanging lip. His words are few, 
reluctant and unmeaning, if he be spoken to ; or 
he is silent, if none address him. He seems to 
chill the very atmosphere around, and, however 
much the company may be disgusted at his sense- 
less humour, they find it infectious, and one sulky 
person will destroy the cordiality of a whole cir- 
cle. This is also unchristian and foolish. The 
Christian should be slow to take offence, and 
ready, nay, eager to make the first overtures to 
13* 



150 GENTLENESS. 

reconciliation. "Anger resteth in the bosom of 
fools ;" and a sulky man feels like a fool, and looks 
like one. While we remain at enmity with a 
fellow creature, we are at enmity with God. How 
much more noble, more Christianlike, to meet an 
enemy with a smile of kindness, an open hand, 
and that gentle spirit which turneth away wrath ! 
The sulky person dll the time despises himself, 
and in his secret soul must admire the superior 
virtue of the other, who can do with ease what to 
him is so difficult — forgive with gentleness. 

Gentleness is opposed to coldness and reserve 
of wanner. In some this arises from indifference 
to the society of those around them; in others 
again from a criminal shamefacedness, which 
shrinks from going forward to solicit regard. 
Either spirit is unchristian. The Christian, as we 
have seen, must have a loving disposition. He 
must desire to love and be loved wherever he can, 
as his Master set him the example. He has no 
right to shut himself up from those, whom God has 
made his neighbours and brethren. Aversion to 



GENTLENESS. 151 

society is a crime, and neglect of Christian fellow- 
ship a contempt of a principal means of grace. 
Nor has he a right to select only certain favour- 
ites and exclude others. We are sent into the 
world, not merely to enjoy ourselves, but to do 
good; "not to be ministered unto, but to minister." 
Our Master had his favourite friends, it is true ; 
but he was also gentle and affable to all. We 
must consider how we may be profitable to others, 
as well as how others may be profitable to us. 
We cannot be exclusive when we are like the 
gentle Jesus, or the merciful God. 

Shamefacedness or bashfulness, which deters us 
from offering kind affections in the name of Christ, 
is not an innocent weakness, for it interferes with 
our duty, which is to be kind and courteous to all. 
It has more to do with pride than men are apt to 
imagine, for the exclamation of the bashful Chris- 
tian, when urged to go forward and cultivate op- 
portunities of usefulness, is, " What will they think 
of me ? They will condemn me for being too busy 
and obtrusive." In other words, he fears to follow 



152 GENTLENESS. 

Christ, who sought out objects of mercy, lest he 
should be condemned by his fellow men. But 
even in this fear he is mistaken, for while he 
shrinks from advancing to meet others, he wishes 
that others would come to meet him. Would he 
censure them for so doing ? Would he not, on the 
contrary, delight to receive such encouragement? 
Let him then judge of others by himself. How 
could we face a martyr's fire, if we bashfully shrink 
from meeting a fellow man with the gentleness of 
Christian love ? 

Gentleness is opposed to bluntness and abrupt- 
ness of manner. Harshness is not named, because 
it is too obvious to need a formal statement, that 
violent and rouo*h address or rebuke are in the 
strongest contrast to gentleness. No one can be 
harsh without somewhat of anger, or rough with- 
out disregard of another's sensibilities. Severity, 
except in some rare instances, and then when we 
act in God's name, is reserved with vengeance in 
Jehovah's hands ; and he mingles mercy with judg- 
ment. Violent and vituperative epithets are strange 



GENTLENESS. 153 

sounds from the lips of one that professes to follow 
Him, " who when reviled, reviled not again." All 
who have the same spirit with the apostles, "per- 
suade men, by the terrors of the Lord." Prophecy 
said of our Saviour, " He shall not strive nor cry, 
neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. 
The bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking 
flax shall he not quench." Even in condemning 
the hypocritical scribes, whose secret wickedness 
he saw, his language is rather in sorrow than an- 
ger, for the word our Bibles have rendered " Wo !" 
might in equal truth have been translated " Alas 
for you !" What right then has a sinful follower 
of his, to be harsh with a fellow sinner ? 

There are those, however, who have too much 
good feeling to be intentionally harsh, who yet 
allow themselves in a bluntness and abruptness of 
speech, which differs often only in intention from 
positive severity. These never seem to reflect that 
they require a courteous and modest address from 
others to themselves ; but think because thev are 
honest and well meaning, they may say what they 



154 GENTLENESS. 

please in what manner they please. The slightest 
knowledge of hnman nature, the most superficial 
observation of God's language to men, should con- 
vince us, that if we would win men and turn them 
to the truth, we must approach them not only with 
kindness but due respect. "Honour all men," 
says the apostle, and we have a beautiful exempli- 
fication of this principle in the manner of his ad- 
dress to Agrippa and Festus. " A zealous man 
hath not done his duty," says Jeremy Taylor, 
" when he calls his brother a drunkard and a beast 
. . . but when he is, though severe against vice, 
charitable to the man, and careful of his reputa- 
tion, and sorry for his dishonour, and observant of 
his circumstances, and watchful to surprise his af- 
fections and "resolutions then when they are most 
tender and most tenable ; for men will not be in 
love with virtue, whither they are forced with 
rudeness and incivility; but they love to dwell 
where they are invited friendly, and are treated civ- 
illy." It is a poor excuse that our natural manner 
is blunt and abrupt, and, therefore, men should take 



GENTLENESS. 155 

no offence at it. We show but little benevolence, 
when, to do men good, we are not willing to mend 
our manners, but, for want of a little care, disgust 
and turn them away from our good counsel. The 
roughest woodcutter sharpens his axe, that he may 
cut rather than bruise, and the most ignorant ar- 
tisan will oil his machinery lest it should turn with 
difficulty and noisy creaking. Should not the 
Christian avoid blunt words, and give gentleness 
to his manner? Besides, it is not so certain, that 
because a man is blunt and rude in speech, he is 
sincere. There is more sign of sincerity in the 
man, who shows that he takes pains to be kind. 
Even if the world give him credit for honesty, it is 
for honesty in its least lovely form ; and truth is 
most attractive when most meek and gentle. But 
the world will not always give him such credit, for 
one of the best judges of the human heart holds 
of such a person this strong language : 

" This is some fellow, 
"Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect 
A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb 



156 GENTLENESS. 

Quite from his nature. He can't flatter, he ; 

An honest mind and plain, he must speak truth ; 

An they will take it, so ; if not, he 's plain. 

These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness 

Harbour more craft, and far corrupter ends, 

Than twenty silky ducking observants 

That stretch their duties nicely." 

Gentleness is, in fine, that kind, pleasant, con- 
siderate and persuasive spirit, which evinces itself 
in a kind, pleasant, considerate and persuasive 
manner, finds its pattern in the character of Jesus 
Christ, and has its warrant in the command and. 
mercifulness of God. Such a spirit the Holy 
Ghost works in the soul of every sanctified be- 
liever. 

The excellence of Christian gentleness needs but 
little setting forth. 

It recommends us to our fellow men, and so 
increases our opportunities and influence for use- 
fulness. There is a charm in gentleness, which a 
man must be a savage to resist. Who can wan- 
tonly ill treat a lamb or a dove ? Who can refuse 



GENTLENESS. 157 

the gentle graces of childhood, or of female sweet- 
ness and winning modesty? Armed only with 
love, the Gospel made its way, rebuking every sin 
and resolute against all wrong, though sword, and 
fire, and chains opposed its gentle conquests, until 
it has subdued and transformed the institutions of 
all the civilized world. Thus should the Christian 
conquer, disarming malice and changing enemies 
into friends. Talk as men may of courage, con- 
science never denies the principle that " better is 
he who ruleth his own heart, than he who taketh a 
city." God himself subdues and rules his people 
by gentleness. " Thy gentleness hath made me 
great," says David; and again, " There is forgive- 
ness with thee, that thou mayest be feared ;" and 
the apostle, " The love of Christ constraineth us." 
So let us make men our friends by gentleness and 
love, that we may, in the spirit of meekness, make 
them by God's grace the friends of Christ. 

It is for our own comfort. However it may 
comport with our petty infirmities at the moment, 
to be revengeful, or proud, or harsh, or blunt, no 
14 



158 GENTLENESS. 

man ever feels comfortable after having wounded 
the feelings of another ; but every one has humani- 
ty enough to enjoy the warm reflection of pleasure 
he has caused in another. Gentleness is the charm 
of society, which distinguishes the civilized from 
the savage. He, who neglects to cultivate this 
sweet grace, may be tolerated, and sometimes 
loved, but it will be for some other reason, and 
despite his lack of gentleness. The diamond 
may be precious in the rough, but it would be far 
more so if polished and bright. Christ came from 
heaven to earth, that we might learn from him 
how to prepare for heaven, and he was meek, and 
lowly, and gentle. 

It is pleasing to God. He loves gentleness, be- 
cause it is a sign of an humble and loving heart. 
He loves to see the world made happy, and he 
loves the gentle Christian who seeks to make it so. 
He loves to see his children useful, and gentleness 
increases their usefulness. He loves the gentle, 
for they are like his beloved Son, and like himself. 
As his rain upon the mown grass, healing its 



GENTLENESS. 159 

wounds and repairing its verdure ; as his still and 
penetrating dews, which fall noiselessly but geni- 
ally ; so would he have his children's spirit to bless 
the hearts and lives of men. 

Let us then never forget that Christian gentle- 
ness is a fruit of the Spirit : 

That we must ask and receive it only at the 
hands of God for Christ's sake : 

And that, if we would have an answer to our 
prayers for gentleness, we must cultivate it in our 
hearts, anoint our lips with it, and rule by it our 
constant demeanour. 



ra 



GOODNESS. 



Goodness, in modern language, is generally 
another name for virtue ; and Christians, when 
they call a man good, intend to say, that he is 
sincerely religious ; but, originally, the word had 
not so wide a meaning. No man, indeed, can be 
truly good, unless he be truly religious, or truly 
religious without being truly good ; yet goodness 
is a distinct grace among many which religion 
produces. Here we find goodness to be one of 
several fruits of the Spirit, which together make 
up the Christian character; and frequently in the 
Scriptures we read of goodness in such connections 

14* 16! 



162 GOODNESS. 

as render attention to its particular signification 
necessary. Thus Paul in the Eomans says, " Be- 
hold the goodness and severity of God." Good- 
ness, one attribute, is contrasted with severity, 
another attribute, to the perfect God. " Good and 
upright is the Lord," said the Psalmist, " therefore 
will he teach sinners in the way." His goodness, 
combined with his love of righteousness, moves 
Him to make sinners happy by making them holy. 
" that men would praise the Lord for his good- 
ness, for his wonderful works to the children of 
men !" The occasion of gratitude is God's bounti- 
ful providence for our necessity and enjoyment. 
The good God is a holy God, but the holy God is 
good in the kindness and compassion which he 
shows to his creatures. 

In the same manner the apostle says, " Scarcely 
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure 
for a good man some would even dare to die." 
More will be done to serve a good man than one 
merely just. And again the Psalmist: "O my 
soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, my goodness 



GOODNESS. 163 

extendeth not to thee (reacheth not to thee) but to 
the saints that are in the earth." Goodness can- 
not, then, be religious duty in general, for God, 
through Christ, does accept of our obedience ; but 
some service or kindness of which God stands in 
no need, but our fellow Christians do. 

Good is that which is necessary to our happi- 
ness ; as, " There be many that say, Who will 
show us any good ?" " taste and see that the 
Lord is good." Goodness, therefore, must have 
reference to the happiness of our fellow creatures, 
and we may define it to be, 

A sincere desire for the happiness of others, 
expressed by conduct calculated to advance that 
happiness. 

Love, named by the apostle before, is, as we 
have seenj a lovingness of heart, or a disposition 
to cherish an affection for others wherever there is 
opportunity. But we may love those to wdiom, 
strictly speaking, we can do no good, as God and 
his holy angels. Goodness in us implies some 
want upon the part of those toward whom it ' is 



164 GOODNESS. 

felt and exercised. Peace, or peaceableness, and 
gentleness, with some other Christian virtues, are 
forms of goodness, but no one of them includes the 
whole idea, for we must be more than peaceable, 
and forgiving, and gentle, if we would be good. 
Mercy is sometimes confounded with goodness; 
but mercy is, rightly, kindness to the unworthy, 
while goodness makes no such distinction. 

The best practical definition of goodness is 
given in the life and character of Jesus Christ : 
" Jesus of Nazarus, who went about doing good." 
So far as we resemble Jesus in his devotion to 
the welfare of men, we possess the grace of good- 
ness. 

It is, therefore, not to be wondered at, that so 
eminent and essential a grace of the Christian 
character should sometimes be named to express 
the whole of it ; and it were well to learn from 
this natural interchangeableness of terms, that, if 
we mean by good men, Christians, to be Christians, 
we must always be good. 

Goodness, being an active disposition to pro- 



GOODNESS. 165 

mote the happiness of others, refers of course to 
their moral as well as to their physical welfare, 
their temporal as well as their eternal enjoyment. 
The goodness of the world seeks, at best, to relieve 
the afflictions, and add to the comforts of men in 
this life ; and, so that their few days of this sor- 
rowful time can be rendered more tolerable, the 
fate of the undying soul is little thought of. There 
is also a fanaticism, (for it deserves no better name) 
which, in supposed eagerness for the salvation of 
men from eternal misery, overlooks, and even wil- 
fully disregards their sufferings here. But the 
good Christian is prompted by the same motives, 
which urge him to secure to men the hope of 
heaven, to make them as happy as he can before 
they get there. The world will have but a poor 
opinion of their goodness, who are very liberal in 
offering God's riches, but take care to give none 
of their own; while the Christian, who is most 
ready to relieve present trouble, will receive great- 
er respect for his honesty, when he warns against 
eternal danger. Thus we find that our blessed 



166 GOODNESS. 

Master proved to the world his pity for their souls, 
by his pity for their bodies. He who gave his 
own flesh and blood to satisfy our spiritual hunger 
and thirst, could not look upon a crowd fainting 
for want of bread, but he must work a miracle to 
supply them with it ; and his way to the cross, where 
he offered himself as a ransom for sinners, that he 
might redeem them from hell, and purchase for 
them heaven, was besieged by crowds of sick and 
sorrowful patients, and " he healed them all." 
The chosen attendants of Him who came to take 
away sin, which "brought in death and all our 
wo," were the lame, leaping in the ecstacy of re- 
covered soundness ; the leper, with his flesh clean 
and smooth as a child's ; the blind, following him 
with rejoicing eyes ; the dumb, singing grateful 
doxologies ; the dead, loosened from his grave- 
clothes ; and the mourner, with her dead given 
back to her bosom. Yet the continual earnestness 
with which he preached the Gospel of the king- 
dom, and the zeal with which he made every in- 
stance of healing the body a parable of his readi- 



GOODNESS. 167 

ness to be the Jesus of our souls, demonstrated his 
greater anxiety to save from the wrath of him who 
is able to cast both body and soul into hell. The 
good Christian is a follower of Him " who went 
about doing good." 

As it is, then, the office of Christian goodness 
to do good unto all men, as we have opportunity, 
and to be faithful in goodness unto death, there is 
no need of specifying the many ways and occa- 
sions of doing good, (for which, indeed, a volume 
would be insufficient,) but we may with greater 
economy of time, 

I. Inquire how we may distinguish between true 
and false goodness. 

II. Consider some principal arguments to the 
cultivation of so excellent a grace. 

I. The distinguishing marks of true and false 
goodness. 

True goodness flows from Christian faith. It is 
not to be denied, that there is a sort of goodness 
which seems natural to human nature, for which 
reason we give the name of humanity to pity and 



168 GOODNESS. 

mercifulness. God, for wise purposes, permitted 
our fallen nature to retain a certain pleasure in 
seeing pleasure, and a certain dislike of seeing 
pain. In the same manner as we paint pleasant 
pictures to gratify the eye, and combine harmoni- 
ous sounds to delight the ear, men may often do 
good from a satisfaction they have in it, or avoid 
giving pain lest they might suffer themselves in 
seeing it ; but the moment it is necessary to 
neglect, oppress, or give pain to others, that some 
stronger passion may be gratified, their goodness 
is at an end. This is no harsh slander of the 
world. The laws of every corporation, the econo- 
my of trade, nay, the common rule by which men 
govern themselves in dealing with others, proceed 
upon the supposition that every man will be swayed 
by his personal interest and selfish feelings. Take 
away responsibility, where there is the slightest 
seeming interest in doing wrong, and you have 
gone far to take away goodness. 

This may show itself differently in different in- 
dividuals, because in different dispositions, differ- 



._ 



GOODNESS. 169 

ent passions may be paramount. One man's ruling 
passion may be covetousness. He may not be 
naturally cruel. He has no wish that those with 
whom he has no concern should suffer want or 
wounds. But let an unfortunate family be the 
tenants of one of his houses, and to exact his rent, 
he will strip them of their all, and turn them 
shivering and starving into t*he street. Encourage 
him with the prospect of gain, and he will arm the 
privateer or the slaver, to pay himself a rich divi- 
dend, at the cost of blood, and rapine, and un- 
speakable misery. Nay, show him a wretch that 
must suffer and perish, unless he take largely from 
his hoards for his relief, and he will let him suffer 
and perish, because he has more pleasure in hoard- 
ing his money than he has pain at the thought of 
another's distress. 

Another may not be covetous, but he is volup- 
tuous and sensual, and he will blind his eyes to 
the future misery of the victims of his licentious- 
ness ; he will defraud the honest and industrious 
of their due, rather than deny himself indulgences ; 
15 



170 GOODNESS. 

and revel in luxurious excess, when trie poor man 
is starving for lack of such crumbs as fall from his 
table. 

Another is not a sensualist, but he is ambitious, 
and he will not scruple to trample upon the inter- 
ests of his whole country, or wade to power 
through rivers of blood. The same man, who 
would have wept over a child crushed by the 
wheel of his carriage in a peaceful street, will ride 
exultingly over a field of battle, though every 
tramp of his war horse is upon a gallant bosom, 
and his artillery is sweeping thousands of husbands 
and fathers into a miserable eternity. 

Another is neither covetous, licentious, nor am- 
bitious, but he is indolent ; and so that he can 
keep himself from the annoyance of knowing that 
others are in trouble, he will lounge on in sleepy 
ease, though the world were dying for want of his 
help. 

These are strong instances, but they illustrate 
human nature as it is when fairly tried ; though 
we may individually abhor such crimes, as Hazael 



GOODNESS. 171 

once did the assassination of his prince, or David 
the robbery of the poor man's one ewe lamb, or 
the youthful Nero his first death warrant. " We 
know what we are, but we know not what we 
might be," if the right test were applied. 

We read of the African women who ministered 
to the fainting Mungo Park, with that touching 
song, which for plaintive simplicity, is almost un- 
equalled : 

" He hath no mother to make him bread, 
No wife to grind him corn ;" 

and we are ready to echo all his praise of woman's 
goodness. Yet, when we read again of Fulvia 
tearing the tongue of the dead Cicero with her 
golden bodkin ; or the bad Elizabeth treacherously 
giving the gentle Mary to imprisonment and death ; 
or of the Indian women, foremost in torturing their 
captured enemies ; we are as ready to believe that 
there is none so cruel and unforgiving as a revenge- 
ful, jealous, angry woman. 



172 GOODNESS. 

The boasted charity of the world, when ex- 
amined, will be found to have cost the dispensers 
of it, little that they valued, or to have purchased 
an ostentation and applause which they valued 
more. Half, at least, of its hospitals and asylums 
have been founded by funds wrung from the 
wretch 

" Upon the bed 
" Of sin, delirious with its dread ;" 

or by those who robbed their heirs to make 
amends for lives of niggardliness ; and the pomp- 
ous tablet gives them credit for a charity, which 
no more warmed their bosoms than it does the 
marble bust that crowns the monument. What 
becomes of goodness when envy, or jealousy, or 
revenge, or pride, contends against it ? How small 
a drop of such subtle poison embitters the whole 
heart? "Away with goodness," the world then 
cries ; " crucify it ! crucify it !" 

There is no security for goodness unless in some 



GOODNESS. 173 

strong principle, which lifts the heart of man above 
those things for which the world quarrel, and thus 
purifies the natural affection of self-love from all taint, 
of selfishness. That principle is found in Christian 
faith alone. The true Christian loves his God and 
Saviour, and seeks his happiness from his love. 
Transformed into the image of the good God, he 
delights to imitate him in works of goodness ; and 
being full of better hopes and treasures than those 
of earth and time, no worldly interest is sufficient 
to outweigh his motives to do good. Religion 
does not destroy his love of himself to make room 
for the love of others, but causes him to see and 
feel that their happiness is in a high degree con- 
sistent with, and contributive to his own. Disin- 
terested benevolence, or a benevolence without any 
reference immediate or ultimate to ourselves, is a 
chimera which cannot exist in the government of 
a God, who punishes crime and rewards virtue, 
thus governing intelligence by motive. A man 
who acts without a motive, is either a madman or 
a fool. The delight attending a good action is 
15* 



174 GOODNESS. 

one of the strongest impelling motives to it ; and 
he, who seems to do good without such conscious- 
ness, and without loving to do good, is not in 
heart a good man. Jesus served " for the reward 
set before him." Jehovah himself takes delight in 
goodness, and devised the plan of redemption for 
his own glory : and so far from a well-regulated 
self-love being a sordid affection, it exhalts us to a 
communion with God and the Saviour. True 
goodness, therefore, can only be maintained by a 
faith which supplies higher motives to its exercise, 
than the world can suggest to the withholding of 
it. 

The fact, that among us and other ChVistian 
nations many noble acts of goodness are done by 
those who do not claim to be spiritual Christians, 
does not militate against the principle for which 
we are arguing. They have learned their morality 
from Christian books, and have been encouraged 
by Christian examples. None of us, however 
skeptical we may be, are without the light of 
Christian truth, or apprehensions of the Christian's 



GOODNESS. 175 

eternity. It is religion which binds society to- 
gether. It hallows the vows of wedlock. An ap- 
peal to the ever-living God, who is to judge us all, 
is the last proof of testifying veracity ; and the 
highest officer of our government, which owns or 
denies no religion in its constitution, is sworn into 
office upon the gospels of Jesns Christ. The 
noblest maxim of heathen ethics is that of Tully, 
" It is better to suffer an injury than to do one ;" 
yet how far short does it fall of the Christian's 
rule to love his neighbour as himself, and to do 
good even to his enemies ? A comparison of the 
state of society, where true Christianity prevails, 
with that of other lands, shows how efficient the 
Christian's creed is in softening and humanizing 
the heart ; but it is only when that creed rules the 
heart entirely, that its goodness is complete. 

Such being the source of true goodness, it is 
easy to perceive what its distinguishing character- 
istics are. 

True goodness is not a mere sentiment. Act- 
ivity enters into its very nature. "Most men/' 



176 GOODNESS. 

says the wise author of Proverbs, " will proclaim 
their own goodness, but a faithful man who can 
find?" There are some few who have reached 
such a pitch of depravity as to be utterly indiffer- 
ent to the very name of virtue, nay, to glory in 
the effrontery of vice ; but such monsters are rare. 
Most men wish to appear good to themselves and 
to others. They will talk much, and perhaps 
eloquently, about duties to society, humanity, 
patriotism, and god-like charity. Nay, they resent 
as a personal affront any doubt expressed respect- 
ing the natural kindness of the human heart. 
They are loud in denouncing the tyranny or in- 
justice of others, and will sympathise, as they 
think, deeply with some distant people pining in 
famine, or struggling for freedom, or ground down 
by despotism. They will melt over the sorrows 
of some heroine of romance, or the scenic fable of 
exaggerated wo. The glowing pages of the poet 
or the orator, descriptive of warm affections and 
heroic devotion, will kindle a correspondent glow 
in their bosoms, and they fancy that they also 



GOODNESS. 1*77 

are good. They picture to themselves scenes in 
which they would like to display the benevolence 
within them, and imagine occasions when they 
would shine forth in the glory of virtuous enthu- 
siasm. But alas ! these scenes are never realized ; 
these great occasions never come ; and though op- 
portunities for an ordinary and unobtrusive kind- 
ness abound on every hand, they never seek them 
out, but rather choose to dream again of ideal 
goodness and romantic generosity. Because they 
cannot show their goodness upon a large scale, 
they will not put it forth at all. It is an excellent 
observation of Blair, and one which such persons 
would do well to remember, that "much of the 
happiness of the world depends upon what are 
termed little things ; and it is rare that God 
honours us with heroic and famous distinctions in 
doing good." It is, if we mistake not, Burke who 
says, that " a state which lays its foundation in 
rare and heroic virtues, will be sure to have for 
its superstructure the basest profligacy and cor- 
ruption ;" because ordinary service and integrity 



178 GOODNESS. 

are thus made of no account, when in truth they 
are the life-blood of the "body politic. No one can 
say that he has no opportunities of doing good, in 
a world where there are so many poor to be fed, 
so many sorrowful to be comforted, so many 
youth to be educated, so many strangers to be 
taken by the hand, so many sick to be nursed, 
and, above all, so many souls to be saved. He 
must be blind and deaf, who can see no object 
of goodness, and hear no call for compassion. 
Whatever we may think of ourselves and of what 
we would do, none but those who are actually en- 
gaged in doing good have any true goodness. 
Our means of doing good may be small, but each 
of us has enough to be busy with ; and, like a 
man trading upon little capital, we should turn it 
the more often and with greater industry, that it 
may yield the greater profit. The truly good man 
is the man who does good. 

" In the sharp extremities of fortune, 
The blessings which the weak and poor can scatter, 



GOODNESS. 179 

Have their own season — Tis a little thing 

To give a cup of water, yet its draught 

Of cool refreshment, drained by fevered lips, 

May give a shock of pleasure to the frame 

More exquisite than when nectarean juice 

Eenews the life of joy in happier hours. 

It is a little thing to speak a phrase 

Of common comfort, which by daily use 

Has almost lost its sense : but on the ear 

Of him who thought to die unmourned, 't will fall, 

Like richest music."* 

True goodness is not merely impulsive, but ra- 
tional and considerate. There are many who, the 
moment that they see any one in want or suffer- 
ing, are so pained at the sight that they instantly 
strive to comfort themselves by some gift or effort 
for their relief; and this class of persons, es- 
pecially if they be rich, are fond of thinking that 
money is the cure of all human ills, and when 
they have given money, perchance profusely, are 
satisfied with their easy redemption. But true 

* Talfourd. 



180 GOODNESS. 

goodness, though it feels pain in regarding pain in 
others, and has pleasure in lessening it, thinks 
more of the sufferer than itself. It will therefore 
pause, and be at some trouble to inquire what ser- 
vice is best, and how it may be rendered. Chari- 
ty, (we use the word in its large sense) when it 
is dictated by reason and piety, will be guided by 
reason and the word of God ; and such charity 
will often convey a lasting benefit at the price of 
present gratification, when the man of impulse 
would have inflicted a lasting injury. Goodness 
should be willing to give time, and thought, and 
patience, and even labour ; not merely money and 
kind words and compassionate looks. 

True goodness is self-sacrificing. Not in the 
end, for in doing good for God's sake we can 
make no real sacrifice ; but self-sacrificing in the 
ordinary sense of the word. Many are willing to 
give from the superabundance of their money, and 
think they have done wonders when they give fhe 
hundreth part of what they pay their milliner, or 
their wine-merchant, yet would not bate a single 



GOODNESS. 181 

feather, or scant their table of a dish. Others 
give the waste hours of their leisure to charity, 
and chat well pleased with their goodness among 
pleasant companions, in session as a committee to 
do good upon a large scale. Others, again, are 
proud of using their influence with the world on 
behalf of some needy client, who in his turn swells 
the train of their dependents, and feeds them with 
flattery. Their goodness, it is easy to see, costs 
them nothing, for it only costs them money or 
time, or influence, of little or no use to themselves. 
It is therefore, worth nothing in the sight of God, 
and next to nothing in the sight of men. Our 
true goodness can be measured only by the sacri- 
fices of self which we make for it ; and that poor 
widow, who cast in the two mites, all she had, and 
perhaps went without that day's meal, approached 
nearer the dignity of His mercy, who for our sakes 
became poor, than he whose name is blazoned 
high in the lists of princely donors for gifts whichi 
came from overflowing coffers. 

True goodness is not confined to one or several! 
■ 16 



182 GOODNESS. 

modes of exhibition, but shows itself in all. The 
good man is not content with giving to the poor, 
and relieving the wretched, and exhorting the sin- 
ner, while he is harsh to his family, and overbear- 
ing to his servants, and haughty to his neighbours. 
He is gentle and kind to all; affable, courteous, 
ever ready to oblige, showing in every word and 
look, and gesture, that he wishes to see all happy. 
Wherever he enters he brings sunshine with him, 
the sunshine of heaven gleaming from his holy 
heart upon a shadowed world. The grace of God 
can dwell in strange places, but it is difficult to 
conceive how a peevish, passionate man, careless | 
of others' feelings and comforts, can be a good 
man, though he may have built an hospital, and 
fed a city with bread. 

For the same reason the good man will never 
do good to one, at the risk of another's suffering, 
except it be his own. He is never reckless of con- 
sequences. He remembers that human interests 
are strangely complicated and intermingled, and 
while he tries to do good to the more needy and 



GOODNESS. 183 

suffering, he tries to do harm to none. A little 
patience, and a little pains, by the blessing of God, 
will soon enable him so to adjust and distribute his 
kindness, that the general good may be advanced 
with the individual. 

True goodness is not confined in its objects. As 
the good man's kindness goes beyond himself to 
his family, it goes beyond his family to his coun- 
trymen, and beyond his countrymen to the world. 
The same word, which has commanded him to love 
his neighbour as himself, has taught him that every 
man is his neighbour. It may be right to begin at 
home, for our Saviour, who loved the world, began 
his gospel at Jerusalem ; but, if we would love like 
Jesus, we must embrace the world. The Christian 
may love his own spiritual household, but wo to 
that Christian whose goodness is limited by his sect ! 
Some do good only to those who are grateful and 
worthy : but true goodness is like His, who causes 
" his sun to shine and his rain to descend upon 
the evil and the good, the just and the unjust." 
Some are good to their friends or those who are 



184 GOODNESS. 

r 

indifferent to them, but turn coldly away from 
their enemies, and treat with marked dislike even 
fellow Christians who have offended them. They 
show that their goodness comes not from Christ, 
who loved his enemies, washed the feet of the 
traitor Judas, and prayed for his murderers. 

" Speak, servants of the Blessed One who gave 
The glorious precept, Love your enemies, 
Is it enough that ye should love your friends, 
Even as the heathen do ? Is He who bore 
The flight of friendship, the denial vow 
Of coward love, the Pharisaic taunt, 
Judea's maddened scourge, the Roman spear, 
A world's offences, and the pang of death, — 
Is he your Master if ye only walk 
As nature prompts ? If the love-beaming eye 
Drink fond return reciprocal, the lip 
That pours your praise partake your sympathy 
When sorrow blanches it, the liberal hand 
Win by its gifts the meed of gratitude, 
What do ye more than others ? But on him 
Whose frown of settled hatred mars your rest, 
Who to the bosom of your fame doth strike 



# ; 



GOODNESS. 185 

A serpent's sting, your kindest deeds requite 
With treachery, and o'er your motives cast 
The mist of prejudice, — say can ye look 
"With the meek smile of patient tenderness, 
And from the deep pavilion of your soul 
Send up the prayer of blessing ? 

God of strength ! 
Be merciful; and when we duly kneel 
Beside the pillow of repose, and say 
'Forgive us, Father, e'en as we forgive,* 
Grant that the murmured orison 
Seal not our condemnation."* 

True goodness is untiring. "Be thou faithful 
unto death/' is the Master's command. " Be not 
weary in well-doing, for in due season ye shall 
reap, if ye faint not," is his exhortation and pro- 
mise. It is only by " patient continuance in well- 
doing" that we can attain to " glory, honour, and 
immortal life." This is not our rest, and until our 
Judge shall say, "Well done, good and faithful 
servant," we must not " forget to do good and com- 

* Mrs. Sigotirney. 

16* 



186 GOODNESS. 

municate." We may work in darkness, and see 
no present fruit, but we work for a faithful Master, 
and through his grace our reward is sure. 

II. Some principal arguments to the cultivation 
of this excellent grace of goodness. 

It is an evidence of the work of God's Spirit in 
our hearts. The end of the Spirit's work is to 
make us like God and his Son Jesus Christ. What 
resemblance of the creature to the Creator, of the 
Christian to his Lord, can be greater than that of 
doing good ? Is he not the One who opens his 
hand and supplies the wants of every thing that 
liveth ? Is he not the Father of the fatherless, the 
Judge of the widow, the Consolation of the sorrow- 
ful, and the God of the stranger ? Did not Jesus 
love the world, go about doing good to the world, 
and die for the world ? Only then by doing good 
can we be like him. In the judgment day, the 
inquiry will be made not into our opinions or pro- 
fessions alone, but into our deeds, as proving the 
correctness of our faith and the sincerity of our 
professions. Never can we know that we are in 



GOODNESS. 187 

the right way, except we walk in the footsteps of 
Him, who did good in all his life and death. He 
came from heaven to do good on earth, that we in 
doing good might tread the path to heaven. 

It is well pleasing to God. It was when he 
looked upon his Son doing good, that he declared 
himself well pleased ; and only when we do good 
is he well pleased with us for Christ's sake. In 
our goodness to our fellow men, he sees our love 
to him. He recognizes the character of his chil- 
dren, and the fruits of his Son's atonement. As 
he loves himself for his infinite benevolence, so will 
he love them who are like him in goodness. 

It recommends our religion to the world. The 
goodness of God is the attribute which worldly 
men most admire in him ; and when they see the 
Christian's good works they will recognize the 
Divinity of the Gospel, and glorify him in heaven. 
They will never believe that Christianity leads to 
a better world, unless they see it making this 
world better. 

For the Master's sake, for God's sake, for the 



188 GOODNESS. 

world's sake, we must do good. There are two 
faithful sayinys recorded in .Scripture, the one, 
that " Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
sinners ;" the other, that the " man of God be care- 
ful to maintain good works." We prove our faith 
in the first, by obedience to the second. 

It is the source of rich pleasure to ourselves. If 
God be happy in doing good, every one must be 
happy who does good like him. None ever tried 
doing good, that did not find it so. Most other 
pleasures perish in the using, but the memory of 
good actions is always sweet. It comforts us in 
calamity. It sustains us in trial. It makes the 
wilderness of life blossom, and soothes the pang 
of death, when the good man enters into the joy 
of his Lord. 

Our good works enhance our eternal felicity. 
Christ goes before us to open heaven by his grace, 
but our good works follow to enhance our reward. 
How sweet there, as we look upon the Lamb that 
was slain for us, to remember that we lived for 
him and those he loved I When the redemption 



GOODNESS. 189 

is complete, will it not be the joy of the blessed 
angels to remember all their acts of ministering 
kindness to the heirs of salvation ? Will it not be 
the blessedness of the redeemed to remember their 
acts of kindness to those, who stand with them 
around the throne ? Whose joy, whose glory will 
be the greatest ? His, who did the most good. 

blessed Spirit, whose alone is the fruit of 
goodness, work that goodness in our hearts, that 
we, by thy continual help, may live the life which 
Jesus lived, and share the joy in which he rejoices : 
Even for his sake. Amen. 



vm. 



FAITH. 



It may seem strange to some that the apostle 
should not have named faith first of all, instead of 
after several Christian graces, as we are taught in 
the Scriptures, that faith in Christ is the life of 
Christian morality, suggesting the affection of love 
for God and man, and moving us to a correspon- 
dent course of conduct; and, especially, as the 
apostle Peter, in a passage almost parallel to the 
one before us, exhorts his brethren "to add to 
their faith" some of these very graces here named 
before it. (2 Peter, i. 5, 6, Y). The explanation, 

191 



192 FAITH. 

however, is, that the word is not here to be under- 
stood in its more common sense. 

Faith, in its pure signification, is belief in testi- 
mony, as distinguished from personal knowledge. 
We believe that there is such a country as China, 
though we may never have seen it ; and that there 
once lived such a man as Julius Csesar, though he 
died nearly nineteen hundred years ago, because 
we have had sufficient testimony to convince us of 
both facts ; but we know that we exist by our own 
consciousness, and need no further proof from 
others to assure us, nor could any testimony con- 
vince us to the contrary. We speak sometimes 
figuratively of the testimony of our senses, but 
strictly, what we perceive by our own senses, we 
know of ourselves. 

When faith in testimony is exercised about 
things in which we are personally concerned, it 
will, in due proportion to its strength, influence 
our conduct. If a man be ill of some dangerous 
disease, and is told by a physician in whose 
veracity and skill he has entire faith, that a cer- 



FAITH. 193 

tain remedy will restore him to health, he will 
take that remedy. If one, whom we believe to be 
a person of truth and ability, offers ns his friend- 
ship and aid in difficult circumstances, and we 
need his kindness, we will rely and count upon it ; 
or, if we make a bargain with such an one, we will 
perform our # part of the contract with a strong 
conviction that he will perform his. Faith in such 
a case is more than mere belief. It is confidence. 
Such is the nature of Christian faith, which is 
based upon the testimony of God in the Scrip- 
tures ; and no man has true faith in the word of 
God, unless he believes his soul to be infinitely 
precious, and commits himself for salvation to 
Jesus Christ, and follows him in all those holy 
duties, the practice of which is through grace, the 
only way to attain everlasting life. Wherefore 
Paul and James agree, when one says, "Faith 
without works is dead;" (that is, hath no real 
existence ;) and the other, " I will show thee my 
faith by my works." We are not saved by faith 
without works, for there is no such faith in Christ ; 
17 



194 FAITH. 

neither are we saved by works without faith, for 
no works, but those which flow from faith, are 
acceptable with God. 

But that is not the meaning of faith here. It 
is rather what is usually expressed by veracity, 
honesty, fidelity, or the observance of truth in 
all our assertions, promises, and engagements. 
The supposition of our truth induces others to put 
faith in us, and the keeping or fulfilment of that 
truth, is the fruit of the Spirit which is called 

" FAITH." 

This sense of the term, though unusual, is not 
singular. We find the same Greek word in Titus, 
ii. 10, where servants are exhorted to show, 'all 
good fidelity." In Deuteronomy, xxxii. 20, we 
read, " Children in whom there is no faith," or 
veracity ; and the word in the Septuagint is the 
same as here. In Romans, iii. 3, the apostle asks, 
" Shall their unbelief make the faith of God with- 
out effect ?" Shall their unbelief make God's de- 
clarations untrue ? Indeed, it is common for us to 
speak of plighted faith, of relying upon another's 



FAITH. 195 

faith, of acting in good faith, and of the faith of 
treaties and contracts. 

This use of the word faith itself shows the value 
of the virtue signified by it. Without such truth 
there could be no confidence. The boundaries of 
our personal observation would be the limit of our 
knowledge. The child would doubt his parent, 
and the pupil his teacher. History would cease 
to instruct by the lessons of the past, and the voy- 
ager to other lands would travel for all but him- 
self in vain. No bargains could be made except 
those consummated on the spot, and commerce 
would dwindle to a momentary traffic. Distrust- 
ful nations would own no treaties, and perpetual 
arms be the sole security from perpetual danger. 
The person of a herald would cease to be sacred, 
and the white flag of truce and peace be crimsoned 
with his blood. Society in its simplest, as well as 
its most extended forms, would be broken up. 
The same cement, without which the confederacy 
of affiliated states would crumble into ruin, is 
necessary to connubial attachment, household 



196 FAITH. 

affections, and the charities of neighbourhood. 
The wildest barbarism is but a remote approach to 
the confusion and anarchy of a world in which 
every man would be a liar, a traitor, and sup- 
planter of his brother, language no longer the 
interpreter of thought or vehicle of knowledge, 
and truth itself, in the general distrust, no better 
than falsehood. A violation of faith is, therefore, 
not a passing crime, and injurious only to the one 
or the few immediately deceived. It is rebellion 
against the God who ordained the laws of so- 
ciety, with the happiness to be found in them, 
and treason against society itself. So the con- 
sent of the civilized world has stamped it. For, 
though, from the sad corruption of the public 
moral sense, certain forms of knavery and de- 
ception, (not less, but, because upon a larger scale, 
more criminal than the petty cheating of the 
vulgar rogue,) have come to bear the name of 
financial tact or clever operations, and breach of 
trust is, by some strange inconsistency, but a 
misdemeanour in the eyes of law; yet the last 



FAITH. 197 

insult to which a man will submit is to be called a 
liar, and society frowns away from her circles the 
detected scoundrel, unless indeed his villany has 
been lucrative enough to gild his infamy, to 
dazzle the venal multitude with splendour, or 
stop the accusing mouth with the luxuries of his 
table. Even then there is a natural perception of 
a fitness in truth, which no sophistry can ut- 
terly blind, and the false and dishonest man 
carries within his bosom a nest of venomed 
thoughts, that will hiss far louder than the 
populace without. 

What the opinion is, which God holds of false- 
hood, he hath expressed by that terrible sentence, 
that " all liars (which includes all the deceitful and 
dishonest) shall have their part in the lake that 
burneth with fire and brimstone." And, truly, 
well does he deserve such extremity of punish- 
ment, who, so far as his influence extends, plucks 
the corner-stone from the fabric of social con- 
fidence, extinguishes the light of the world, 
and insults the all-seeing and holy God to his 

17* 



198 FAITH. 

face, that he may deceive and wrong his fellow 
men. 

The truth or faithfulness here insisted upon, 
means, primarily, truth and faithfulness toward 
God in our Christian profession ; but our duty to 
God necessarily includes those duties to our fellow 
men which he has enjoined, and the apostle is 
here speaking of the fruits of the Spirit, or of 
those graces which prove the Spirit of God to be 
dwelling in the Christian. It would be impossi- 
ble, in the narrow limits of this essay, to describe, 
or even allude to the many forms and occasions 
of observing truth and faithfulness. We may, 
therefore, confine ourselves to the purpose of 
showing, how a true and faithful conscience toward 
God will preserve the Christian's truth and faith- 
fulness in all his conduct and example before men. 

The man of truth and faithfulness will be ever 
cautious lest he should offend. 

As it regards his words. The resolution and 
the prayer of David should be those of every true 
Christian. " I will take heed to my ways that I 



FAITH. 199 

sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth 
as with a bridle." " Set a watch, Lord, before 
my mouth. Keep the door of my lips." James, 
who seems to have been especially anxious to re- 
commend the daily practice of Christianity in 
what are termed the common virtues, devotes a 
whole chapter to the importance of words, and the 
good or evil they may do. " If any man among 
you," says he, " seem to be religious, and bridleth 
not his tongue, that man's religion is vain." And 
again, " If a man offend not in word, the same is 
a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole 
body." Our Saviour too has told us, that "for 
every Reword" we shall be brought into judg- 
ment. The Christian will, therefore, cautiously 
weigh his words and guard his conversation, lest 
in any thing he may offend against the truth, and 
so against God and man. He will speak nothing 
but what he knows to be truth, and that truth only 
in love. 

There are many, however, who talk so much, 
that they cannot talk cautiously, and hence talk 



200 FAITH. 

much error and falsehood. The briefest pause in 
conversation is painful to them, and they feel 
themselves bound to fill it up, and when they once 
begin, are so charmed with their own voice, that 
they run precipitately on, lest any other should 
have an opportunity to disturb their self-delighted 
eloquence. It must be a clever brain at the best, 
which can send forth a constant stream of truth 
and thought, and such persons being usually de- 
ficient in that organ, they are obliged to avail 
themselves of the trifles which are uppermost, and 
such words, for want of better, as rise to their lips. 
Hence their opinions are crude and hasty, and 
necessarily often erroneous, or even when correct, 
so badly expressed that they often seem to assert 
what they neither mean nor believe ; and as far as 
their testimony is credited, (though happily it is 
not much) their hearers go away with false and in- 
jurious impressions. 

It is not easy to shine in conversation, and yet 
more difficult for those who would be always co- 
ruscating. Hence they endeavour after piquant 



FAITH. 201 

anecdote, witty paradoxes, marvellous narratives, 
and illustrative incident. So long as the treasury 
of their memory furnishes the true and the rea- 
sonable, they may confine themselves to them ; 
but, when their frequent drafts cease to be honour- 
ed, there is a strong temptation, and one they 
rarely resist, to invent and counterfeit the supply 
which the occasion needs ; and this especially as, 
Lord Bacon tells us, " the admixture of a lie doth 
ever add pleasure," for a romance will have more 
readers than true history, and a fairy tale than 
Solomon's proverbs. Every public speaker knows 
how apt he is in the impetus of his declamation to 
seize upon words, and even opinions, which in a 
cooler moment he would reject ; and we have seen 
the frantic steed become so blind with its own ra- 
pidity as to rush into a ditch or over a precipice ; 
but there is perhaps nothing so rashly impetuous 
or apt to involve itself in foulness or danger, as 
the careless, talkative tongue. 

Besides, such persons, eager for a new supply 
of facts and incidents, are seldom scrupulous as to 



202 FAITH. 

the sources from which they gather them, and 
thus become the most busy and mischievous in- 
struments of scandal and slander. To have the 
petty triumph of telling a new report, to astound 
their listeners with the unexpected error of some 
good man or exemplary woman, (the better the 
character the more startling the story, for who 
cares to hear that a thief has stolen again, or a. 
drunkard has had another debauch ?) is a pleasure 
your careless talker can hardly deny himself. It 
is to be hoped that there are but few, at least in a 
community like ours, who would deliberately and 
maliciously invent a false report, to destroy the 
character and peace of his neighbour ; but there 
are some fully equal to such baseness, else a large 
proportion of the lies in daily circulation could 
never have been told. It is a most pernicious 
maxim, that there must be some foundation for 
every wide-spread scandal ; or, as the common 
saying is, " Where there is smoke there must be 
fire ;" for it accuses the character of Him who died 
upon the cross, a victim of calumny, and of those 



FAITH. 203 

to whom lie said, " Blessed are ye, when all men 
speak all manner of evil against yon falsely for 
my sake." How then do such base falsehoods 
come to be believed? Not certainly upon the 
credit of the original inventors, but from the repe- 
tition of them by those of whom the world thinks 
better than that they could willingly lie to injure 
another. Let it be graven upon our memories, 
that the person who repeats a slander, even though 
he give the name of his author, is no better and far 
more mischievous than its originator. He endorses 
the lie by his repetition of it, and, as without his 
endorsement it could never have gained credit, he 
is responsible for the mischief by the law of God 
and man. We would take a spurious note far 
more readily from an honest man than from a 
known counterfeiter, and every additional hand it 
passes through adds to the deception. Besides, 
slander is more accumulative than a snowball. It 
is like a salad, which every one will season to his 
own taste, or the taste of those to whom he offers 
it ; or like the kite of a child to which additional 



204 FAITH. 

exaggerations are attached, each light in itself, but 
together forming a counterbalancing weight, with- 
out which the airy trifle would fall again to earth, 
when, with eager speed, he runs to make it soar 
aloft ; the mischiefs, the heart-burnings, the 
disgraceful enmities, which have occurred from 
otherwise good and well-meaning people repeating 
the words of those whom they know, or ought to 
know, to be unworthy of credit ! What is it, 
tale-bearer, that makes you so credulous of another's 
faults, but a consciousness within your breast that 
you are no better than you describe him to be ! 

As it regards promises. When men wish to 
make an assertion more binding, they confirm 
it with an oath, which is nothing else than de- 
claring that they make it in the presence of God 
as a witness. Few men, it is to be presumed, 
certainly no true Christian, would engage to do a 
thing by an oath lightly. They would weigh well 
their capacity and opportunity to perform, before 
they thus bound themselves. But the faithful 
Christian believes himself ever to be in the 



FAITH. 205 

presence of God, and that He is a witness of 
all his engagements. So with him every pro- 
mise will have the sanctity of an oath, and, there- 
fore, will not be lightly made. There are those, 
however, who are apt, in the enthusiasm of the 
moment, to pledge themselves earnestly to their 
neighbour and society, to do what they find them- 
selves either unable or unwilling to perform, when 
the excitement of the occasion has subsided. They 
then, it is true, see that, they were rash and im- 
provident in their pledges, and perhaps hold them- 
selves excused for neglecting their fulfilment. But 
their neighbours or the world think of the promise 
itself, not of the circumstances. They have per- 
haps relied upon it, made their own arrangements 
accordingly, or are looking for the reality of a 
virtue which promised so well. The failure of 
one to perform his promise may be cause of failure 
in others who are innocent; and if a professing 
Christian be the promise-breaker, the plea of 
enthusiasm will not do much to save his religion 
from reproach. Probably few have done more 
18 



206 FAITH. 

mischief to the public character of the Church of 
God, than those who are loud in their professions 
and engagements during some religious excite- 
ment, yet, when it is over, fall into lukewarmness 
and worldly-mindedness ; and but for more steady 
and cautious Christians, who at such times, were 
perhaps reproached for coldness and unbelief, 
the cause of religion would long since have been 
stranded. 

Upon the same principle, we may well doubt 
the propriety and safety of vowing or publicly re- 
solving upon an extraordinary morality, or diffi- 
cult and singular courses of conduct, which the 
Scriptures, and the example of Christ and his 
apostles, have not enjoined. Such resolutions 
are like the vauntings of the boaster, rarely indi- 
cative of firm moral principle, but rather serving 
to cheat the resolver himself into a belief of a de- 
termination he does not possess. The effect may 
be, to sustain him for a season by the unusual 
effort which the fear of shame may excite, but in 
the end, like every other substitute for calm and 



FAITH. 207 

rational virtue, they will fail and bring disgrace. 
Vows of duty to God, and pledges of truth in our 
engagements with each other, are highly proper ; 
but, except in matters clearly revealed by precept 
and example, they should be made with the great- 
est caution. The man, who cannot be kept in 
virtue by the simple rules of God's law, will never 
be restrained from vice by any transcendental 
morality of human devising. The spasmodic ex- 
ertions of a frame when diseased, may show more 
strength than its healthy efforts, but the very 
strength of those spasms prove the absence of 
health, and are sure to be succeeded by a corres- 
pondent depression and inaction. It is to this 
error in attempting virtue that the wise man refers, 
when he says, " Be not righteous over-much ; 
neither make thyself over-wise : why shouldest 
thou destroy thyself?" And again : u Better is it 
not to vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not 
pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to 
sin, neither say thou before the angel, that it was 
an error : wherefore should God be angry at thy 



208 FAITH. 

voice, and destroy the work of thy hands? For 
in the multitude of dreams and many words there 
are also divers vanities : but fear thou God."* 
"We have strong proofs of this in the Pharisaism 
of a Saviour's time, and the supererogatory vows 
and penances of later times, by which monstrous 
and unnecessary difficulties received the name of 
eminent virtue, and a breach of common morality 
became but a venial offence. Virtue lies not in 
promising extravagantly, but in doing well. And 
as has been observed by another, " We must not 
needlessly multiply vows upon our souls. The 
more care we take before we utter any thing with 
our lips, the more secure shall we be of fulfilling 
what our lips pronounce ; though there is no in- 
convenience of solemn engagements to God to do 
what his law hath made our duty_before."f 

This caution should especially be used by Chris- 
tians in their contracts of business. Such con- 
tracts are engagements, which require special 
attention. For as the world are apt to think more 

* Eccles. v. 5, 6, 7. t Dr. Watts. 



FAITH. 209 

of those arrangements which respect the things 
upon which they have set their hearts,, so, few 
things are more likely to bring scandal upon a 
Christian's profession than the want of punctuality 
and strict probity in his worldly affairs. Yet there 
is reason to fear, that the Christian in his business 
sometimes forgets the precision and inflexibility 
of Christian morality. Credit is necessary to busi- 
ness, but, because it is so necessary, the abuse of 
confidence is the more criminal. It is like that 
mighty vapour which, when duly controlled and 
regulated as to its power of expansion, gives 
energy to effect the grandest purposes, but when 
extravagantly applied, explodes and shatters the 
whole economy into ruin, and brings destruction 
upon the many for the folly of the few. What 
may be the maxim of the world upon this subject, 
it is not our duty to know, but no Christian can 
venture, for his own gain, another's interest who 
has confided in his integrity, and be guiltless be- 
fore God. Unforeseen calamities may happen to 
the best of men and in their wisest projects, but a 
18* 



210 FAITH. 

rash speculator and an over-grasping adventurer 
with other men's means, breaks, in the eye of 
Christian morality, that commandment which says 
" thou shalt not steal," *as really as the man who 
picks a pocket or robs on the highway. The man 
true and faithful to his God will, in all his deal- 
ings with his fellow man, remember the caution 
of his Bible, " He that hasteth to be rich hath an 
evil eye, and considereth not that poverty may 
come upon him." And again : " They that will 
be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into 
many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men 
in destruction and perdition. For the love of 
money is the root of all evil ; which, while some 
coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and 
pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 
But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and 
folio w after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, 
patience, meekness." 

The man of truth and faithfulness will not be 
satisfied with conforming, however strictly, to the 
laws of men. 



FAITH. 211 

Although in its spirit the world is at enmity 
with God, it has paid an unintentional homage to 
the excellence of God's law, by prescribing many 
of its rules as necessary to the good order of social 
interests. Hence there is a certain resemblance 
between the external conduct of the man of world- 
ly honour and that of the Christian, and the laws 
of men are, to a certain extent, agreeable to the 
laws of God. Yet it must happen, partly from 
the imperfection of every thing human, and partly 
from their unwillingness to bind themselves by a 
morality so strict, that our legislators will omit 
many things which the law of God requires. 
The Christian, however, while he conscientiously 
obeys the human government under which he 
lives, remembers the higher responsibility which 
he owes to God, as our Lord commanded us to 
"render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, 
and unto God the things that are God's." There 
may be many obligations to his neighbour which 
the laws do not compel him to fulfil, or which he 
may resist by the aid of cunning counsel and pro- 



212 FAITH. 

traded litigation, that are yet required by the ra e 
to do unto others as he would have them do unto 
him ; and so there may be frequent opportunities 
of demanding from his neighbour advantages 
which the letter of the law will enable him to 
exact, that he should cheerfully give up, ac- 
cording to the rule which bids him love his 
neighbour as himself. In many of these in- 
stances, the public opinion of a trading com- 
munity would justify his adhering to the de- 
cision of the courts, and count it no shame for 
him to insist upon the words of the bond, though 
they were u the money or the pound of flesh ;" 
and professing Christians, in the exciting pursuit 
of gain, sometimes observe a legal rigidness and 
exactness in matters of business, which is far from 
consistent with integrity of conscience and charity 
of heart. Because other men avail themselves of 
the laws to the utmost, they justify themselves by 
the example of sinners, and think it necessary to 
foil wrong with its own weapons, forgetting that it 
becomes them to return evil with good. 



FAITH. 213 

The faithful man will be known by his super- 
adding equity to law, mercy to justice, and clemen- 
cy to right. He will so govern his conduct in 
business, that he will not fear to open his books 
with his heart before the eyes of God, or to meet 
the final appeal of both debtor and creditor to the 
Judge of quick and dead, who discerns the 
thoughts and detects the most secret sin. So 
far from reducing Christian character to the stand- 
ard of human legislation, he will endeavour, as his 
influence may enable him, to elevate human legis- 
lation to the standard of Christianity. Thus will 
he avoid the charge which our Lord brought 
against the unbelievers of his time, that they 
" sought honour from men, and not the honour 
which flows from God only." It is but an empty 
hone?ty in the sight of God, which is compelled 
by fear of commercial discredit, a sheriff's writ, or 
a cell in the penitentiary. It is no better than the 
wearing of a garment cut in the fashion of the day, 
for laws may change their fashions as garments do. 
Nor will it be a good excuse for the Christian in 



214 FAITH. 

the day of judgment, that, though he broke God's 
law in defrauding another of what was his due, or 
in exacting more than he could righteously claim, 
the law of the courts below was on his side. 
Verily, from such an one God will demand the 
debt due to himself for his broken precepts ; for 
as we judge " we shall be judged, and with what 
measure we mete, it shall be measured to us again ;" 
and the sentence will be, to " deliver him over to 
the tormentors, not to go thence till he has paid 
the uttermost farthing." 

The man of truth and faithfulness will neither 
be seduced nor intimidated by mere public 
opinion. 

The moral sympathies of our race are quite as 
strong as the physical, and there is a magnetic in- 
fluence which mind has over mind that no one can 
doubt who has studied his own heart, or the con- 
duct of others. In no other way can we account 
for many violent and wide-spread excitements that 
have prevailed in the world, and for which subse- 
quent and cool investigations could discover no 



FAITH. 215 

just cause ; or for the tenacity of the public in re- 
taining many barbarous and silly customs, the 
propriety of which each individual of that public, 
if questioned singly and by himself, would be 
ready to doubt. It is the seduction of public 
opinion which has led to the perpetration of many 
a wrong, and the dread of that opinion which 
deters many a coward soul from doing what is 
right. 

If public opinion be on the side of our supposed 
interests, the sophistry of self readily persuades us 
to make a summary decision that so many cannot 
be in error, when a sober examination of the word 
of God w T ould rebuke and abash us. The orator 
pleads for us, the wit makes our scruples con- 
temptible, and the voice of conscience is hushed 
in the approving hum or acclamations of the 
crowd. It is fashionable to sin, and often do 
fashion's harlot arts paint the cheek of crime with 
the semblance of virtue's healthful bloom, and 
hide the diseased and loathsome form of corrup- 
tion under gay and attractive robes. Yet of what 



216 FAITH. 

is public opinion generally made ? How many are 
there in the multitude, whose united persuasions 
gain our willing ear, to whom, as individuals, we 
would go, relying upon their candour, their good 
sense, and high principle, to ask advice in the 
regulation of our conduct ? " Popular fame," says 
Cicero, " is the consent of knaves and fools ;" and 
if we reflect how rare honest and wise men are, 
we must confess he is not far from the truth. It 
is obvious, also, that there are many depraved 
tendencies common to all men, and that, with the 
exception of those few who steadily and from 
principle resist those tendencies, the general voice 
will be given in palliation of their indulgence, so 
that by agreeing with public opinion, we are often 
only " following the multitude to do evil." 

Besides, men naturally associate with their like, 
the rich with the rich, the powerful with the 
powerful, the learned with the learned, the poor 
with the poor, the good with the good, and the 
vile with the vile ; what seems to be public opin- 
ion in one circle is not public opinion in another, 



FAITH. 217 

what would be glorious in this would be infamous 
in that; and in choosing our association, we 
choose what we wish public opinion to be, con- 
firming ourselves in evil or good as our bias may 
incline. 

There are many methods, also, of controlling 
and even making public opinion, A few may 
have the power, by indirect bribery or intimi- 
dation, to rule the rest, and the very talent 
which they thus display is cited as a proof of 
the value of their opinions. Hence we find in- 
stances of whole communities being led astray by 
some general though corrupt influence, until it 
becomes infamous to stand up for the right, and 
no man can insist upon the obligation of pure 
honesty without being written down a knave. The 
moral sense of the community becomes perverted 
upon other, though kindred, questions, and each 
man, seeing roguery upon a large scale justified 
and gilded, is less chary in venturing upon his 
petty personal deviations from the one straight 
path of true virtue. 
19 



218 FAITH. 

The man, therefore, who would be faithful to 
his God, will mark his course through life by His 
holy word, not swept about by the eddies of 
human opinion, but steering by the fixed and 
bright stars of heavenly truth, which shine in a 
lustre undimmed, and in orbits unbiassed by the 
attractions of earthly interests and prejudice ; or, 
if he choose to strengthen and regulate himself by 
others' example, it will be the example of the good 
and the godly. He would rather be rebuked by 
the wise and religious, than applauded by the 
foolish and profane. It is said of an ancient, re- 
markable for unyielding integrity, that on being 
applauded by the crowd for some sentiments he 
had expressed, he turned to a friend and asked, 
"What foolish thing have I said?" And our 
Saviour has left us this emphatic warning : " Wo 
unto you when all men shall speak well of you, for 
so did their fathers of the false prophets." The 
faithful man looks for the judgment of God alone, 
and the judgment of men is valuable to him only 
when it coincides with the Divine. 



FAITH. 219 

Some, however, who will not allow themselves 
to be seduced by public opinion into overt acts 
of wrong, are deterred, by the fear of it, from 
doing right. They have perhaps a yielding and 
courteous disposition, and dislike to set up and 
maintain their opinion against that of others. It 
seems to them doubly rude, not only to differ from 
the company they are in, but to differ in such a 
way as to pronounce it morally in the wrong. 
Hence, though they give no audible assent to error 
and irreligion, they will say nothing against it, 
nay, even refrain from doing what is right, lest the 
example should cast reproach upon the general 
laxity of morals. 

Or they fear to be thought pragmatical, bigoted 
and singular, and think their criminal bashfulness 
to be the modesty and meekness of an unobtrusive 
religion. 

Or they dread the charge of insincerity and hy- 
pocrisy in pretending to be better than they really 
are, a charge the world is sure to fix upon any who 
greatly outshine them, not conceiving the possi- 



220 FAITH. 

bility of a virtue which is so far above their own 
pitch ; and become unfaithful to God from the 
dread of seeming insincere before men. 

Or, yet more frequently, they shrink from the 
laugh of the world, and " the slow, unmoving fin- 
ger of scorn." Ridicule, though it has been so 
called, is not a test of truth, but rather the strata- 
gem of a weak cause ; yet it is a severe trial of 
faithfulness. Multitudes have been found who 
were ready to contend for distinction even at the 
cannon's mouth, but scarcely ever a bosom so 
shielded by moral firmness as to be impenetrable 
by the shafts of wit. In the records of all the 
persecutions of Christian people by the rack, the 
fire, and the sword, we rarely find an instance of 
open apostacy from the impulse of terror. But 
how frequent on the other hand, in these days of 
comparative safety, has truth been laughed into 
corners, and religion made to hang its head and 
blush, by the polished sneer of profane witticism ? 
The same Peter, who flew in the face of an armed 
guard, and smote with his ready sword the ser- 



FAITH . 221 

vant of authority, was made to lie and blaspheme 
by the sarcastic question of a kitchen maid. 

Yet after all, we ask again, what is the opinion 
or the laugh of the world ? Did it not mock Noah 
all the hundred and twenty years that the ark was 
building ? Did it not mock Lot when he warned 
his sons-in-law of the fires which were about to 
descend upon guilty Sodom ? Did it not deride 
Jesus himself on the way to the cross ? Has it 
not often murdered the martyr in one year, and 
canonized him the next ? One day enthroned the 
bloody conspirator in almost regal pomp, and on 
the morrow shouted execrations as it dragged him 
to the scaffold ? Is it of such a world that the 
man of God is to be afraid ? Good St. Bernard 
well says, " Among the good it is safe to be good ; 
but among the bad to be good deserves praise. 
For when it is safe, it is easy ; but among the bad 
to be good, is difficult in proportion to the good- 
ness." 

For what purpose is the Christian sent into the 
world, but to show the sins of its opinions and 
19* 



222 FAITH. 

practices by the contrast of his own ? Is it not 
then a base desertion of duty to put his light 
under a bushel lest men should accuse him of im- 
modesty in letting it be seen ? Has not our Sa- 
viour told his people that they should be as cities 
set upon a hill, which cannot be hid ? A good 
man will be singular, when found among wicked 
men ; but is it not his duty to be singular ? That 
very singularity is his praise. What has made 
any of the glorious dead remarkable for their 
worth, but their singularity in it, as Aristides, who 
was called the Just ? Why do we so mourn over 
a single error of one otherwise illustrious in 
goodness, but because it shows him not wholly 
above the corruption of the mass, as did the brib- 
ery of Bacon? Excellence is, by its etymology, 
singularity. It proves its possessor to act from 
high motives within his own bosom, and not from 
mere fashion, and a moral aggregation with the 
mass about him. It shows him to be not of men, 
though among them ; above the world, though in 
it. And thus our Saviour said, " Let your light 



FAITH. 223 

so shine before men, that they, seeing your good 
works, may glorify your Father which is in 
heaven," admitting the divinity of religion, be- 
cause its virtues are above those of unassisted 
humanity. 

Besides, as this last quoted text leads us to ob- 
serve, it is by this example of singularity the 
world is to be reformed. The light of a good 
man's life is like a gleam of light shed down from 
heaven upon our darkened earth. The humblest 
Christian, if faithful in goodness, may shed an in- 
fluence widelv around him. 

" How far a little candle throws his beams 1 
So shines a good deed in a naughty world." 

It is not the virtue which makes itself conspicuous, 
but the blackness of prevailing sin. In the day- 
light the candle would "pale its ineffectual fire," 
and if the world were all good, goodness would 
cease to be remarkable. But how could virtue be 



224 FAITH. 

known, if none were to show themselves virtuous t 
The same general corruption, which makes good- 
ness singular, renders the display of it more neces- 
sary. 

" Heaven does with us, as we with torches do, 
Not light them for themselves : for if our virtues 
Did not go forth of us, 't were all the same 
As if we had them not." 

ft 

Were it not for the few good men the world 
always has in it, it would be all crime. Their ex- 
ample has been the salt which has saved the mass 
from utter putrefaction, and will be, by God's 
blessing, the leaven which shall yet leaven the 
whole lump. 

For his own sake, therefore, for the world's 
sake, for God's sake, the faithful Christian will 
never be deterred by fear of the world's opinion, 
from avowing his opinions, combating error, and 
doing what God hath made his duty to do, ac- 
counting, as Barrow nobly expresses it, that " it is 



FAITH. 225 

a glorious infamy which one sustain eth for the sake 
of righteousness." 

The man of truth and faithfulness is constant to 
his piety in all circumstances. 

" The righteous man will hold on his way." 
"The path of the just is as the shining light, 
which shineth more and more unto the perfect 
day." He has one rule, one path, one aim, at all 
times. 

But there are some, seemingly very zealous 
Christians while, in th*]jr youth, they have com- 
paratively few cares, who yet loose all their zeal, 
or, at least, greatly decline in it, when business 
opens to their industry, and the ambition of gain 
seizes upon their hearts. 

Some, while they are poor and have few oppor- 
tunities of worldly indulgence, are very rigid in 
their notions of Christian self-denial and modera- 
tion ; yet, when they get the means, by some 
change of fortune, become more extravagant 
and luxurious than those whom they once cen- 
sured. 



226 FAITH. 

Others again, while rich and comfortable, are 
cheerful and pleasant in their religious duties ; yet, 
when reverses come upon them, are querulous and 
impatient, and part, perhaps, even with their in-, 
tegrity. 

Some are themselves rigid in their separateness 
from the world, condemning its most innocent 
amusements, and countiug it a sin even to smile ; 
yet, when their children grow up around them, 
and are to be established in society, forget 
their former scruples, and indulge them to an 
excess in worldly fashions, which makes Christians 
weep. 

Some are loud in their professions among 
Christians, but among the world are like the 
world. 

Some are good Christians at home and in the 
Church, and in social life, but carry nothing of it 
into their business. 

Some, who in private life or in their individual 
conduct would shrink from any stain of dishon- 
our, will forget all their morality for the maxim 



FAITH. 227 

that " all is fair in politics ;" or as members of 
corporations, seem to believe, that because corpo- 
rations have no souls, they lose theirs when they 
enter one. 

While some who, where they are known, care- 
fully guard themselves from all irregularity, will 
indulge themselves, if they go abroad, as though 
they had left their God and conscience behind 
them. 

There is no need of showing the wickedness 
of such inconsistency, or the shame and reproach 
it will bring upon the Christian name. The true 
Christian, in whom the fruit of the Spirit is faith, 
will always, and in all places, and with all com- 
panies, be a Christian. Never extravagant in his 
professions, he will be always firm to his 
principles. Temptation will be to his faith 
what fire is to the gold. It will purge its 
dross, and make it more pure and shining. 
Like Moses, he will endure " as seeing Him 
who is invisible :" like Paul, fighting the good 
fight, running the race to the end, and keeping 



228 FAITH. 

the faith : like Jesus, looking for " the reward set 
before him." The world did not give him his re- 
ligion, neither can the world take it away. " His 
life is safe with Christ in God." 

Who is sufficient for these things ? None but 
he who is " strengthened with all might both in 
the inner and outer man," The seat of faithful- 
ness is in the heart where the Holy Spirit dwells. 
Let us then not rely upon any resolution or firm- 
ness of our own ; but, while we put forth every 
effort and observe every caution, trust in the Spirit 
of Christ alone to make us faithful even unto 
death, ever mindful that we go nowhere where 
God is not, and that for every thought, and word, 
and deed, we must give an account. He alone, 
who walks with God on earth, will attain the bless- 
edness of walking with God in heaven. The con- 
flict is arduous, but the victory is sure, and the 
glory eternal. " This is the victory which over- 
cometh the world, even our faith." There is no 
virtue so rare as honesty, but the rarer the jewel, 



FAITH. 229 

the more precious it is. Happy is the man who 
has it, and rich will he he in that better world, 
where none wear jewels hut those whom God 
honours as his own. 



20 



IX. 



MEEKNESS. 



The holy honesty, devoted charity, and ardent 
zeal of Paul, gave to his style a fullness, force, and 
grandeur, which have excited the admiration of 
every one who has studied his writings. Nowhere 
do we find those qualities combined as they are in 
him. In some authors we have great energy and 
rush of thought and language, in others great 
copiousness and clearness ; hut the former are apt 
to be rash and inaccurate, if not superficial, sweep- 
ing us to the conclusion they wish us to reach, 
with a torrent-like rapidity, which will not allow 
us to examine the successive stages of the argu- 

231 



232 MEEKNESS. 

ment, and this, perhaps, because they are conscious 
that the argument will not bear a close scrutiny : 
the latter, from an anxiety to be thorough and 
lucid, are apt to become dull even to stagnation, 
and we find difficulty in following them from their 
cautious beginnings to their prolix close. Of the 
first, the scholar has a notable instance in Demos- 
thenes, who cared not to convince his Athenian 
auditors with logical truth, if he could infect them 
with the enthusiasm he assumed; of the others, 
the ethical writers of every age furnish frequent 
examples. But the style of Paul, while it hastens 
on with an earnest and resistless energy, is at the 
same time, deep, broad, and clear, drawing into 
its stream continually fresh supplies of thought, 
omitting nothing necessary to prevent misconcep- 
tion, or remove error. His aim is to set forth 
nothing but truth, and that truth, not for his per- 
sonal success, or the end of a party, but for the 
good of his fellow men, and the glory of God. 
Hence, though it has been less noted by critics, 
there is a nice delicacy in the selection of his 



MEEKNESS. 233 

works, and the arrangement of his thoughts, as 
worthy of admiration as his power and sublimity. 
Every word of it has its purpose and meaning, and 
even when he seems at first glance to have heaped 
synonyme upon synonyme, and inclosed parenthe- 
sis within parenthesis, a careful examination will 
prove him to have been guilty of neither tautology 
nor disorder. 

These remarks have been suggested by his in- 
troduction of the grace of meekness after that of 
faith, or faithfulness. He has spoken before of 
love and peace, and long-suffering and gentleness, 
all of which bear a strong resemblance to the quiet 
beauty of meekness, yet having named faithfulness, 
he immediately adds it to the rest. There is a 
reason for this. The faithful man must be a firm 
and decided man. The grace itself supposes its 
possessor to be exposed to opposition, ridicule, 
and even persecution. The apostle well knew 
how prone the mind is to be chafed and irritated ; 
how likely indignation against error is to excite 
anger against the errorist; how zeal in a good 
20* 



234 MEEKNESS. 

cause oftentimes moves a man to mingle with it 
desire of personal distinction and success, which 
if baffled, stirs up anger and revenge against op- 
ponents ; and, therefore, he instantly insists upon 
faithfulness being followed, or rather accompanied 
by meekness. The same Spirit, which produces 
the one, produces the other, for the fruit of the 
Spirit is meekness. 

That meekness is a grace of very high order, we 
are taught : 

By the frequency with which it is enjoined in 
the sacred Scriptures : " Walk with all lowliness 
and meekness." (Ephes. iv. 2). " Put on there- 
fore meekness and long-suffering." (Col. iii. 12). 
" Follow after meekness." (1 Tim. vi. 11). "Show- 
ing meekness to all men." (Titus iii. 2). 

By the prominence which is given to it, as one 
of our Saviour's principal characteristics : " Learn 
of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart." (Matt. 
xi. 29). "I beseech you, by the meekness and 
gentleness of Christ." (2 Cor. x. 1). 

By the declaration of its necessity to the prof- 



MEEKNESS. 235 

itable reception of gospel truth : " The Lord will 
beautify the meek with salvation." (Ps. cxlix. 4). 
" To preach good tidings to the meek." (Is. lxi. 
1). "The meek shall increase their joy in the 
Lord." (Is. xxix. 19). "Receive with meekness 
the ingrafted word." (James i. 21). And again, 
"The meekness of wisdom." (James iii. 13). 

And by the fact, that temporal as well as eternal 
blessings are promised in reward of it, in both the 
Old and New Testament: "The meek shall in- 
herit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the 
abundance of peace." (Psalm xxxvii. 11). A 
promise our Saviour repeats in his Sermon on the 
Mount : " Blessed are the meek, for they shall in- 
herit the earth." (Matt. v. 5). 

Besides which, Peter tells us that " a meek and 
quiet spirit is in the sight of God, of great price," 
or estimation. (1 Peter iii. 4). 

How serious and devout should be our endeav- 
ours to understand and possess a grace, to which 
the Holy Ghost so often exhorts, which is so es- 
sential a badge of Christ's true followers, is so 



236 ' MEEKNESS. 

necessary to growth in Christian knowledge, gives 
on earth so rich a foretaste of heaven, and adorns 
the soul with a loveliness God delights to look 
upon and to bless ! 

In defining gentleness (which we considered to 
be, a sweet and obliging temper manifested by 
sweet and obliging words and manners) we distin- 
guished it from meekness, as being more of an 
active nature, while meekness is rather a passive 
virtue, and consists in the maintenance of a calm 
and forgiving disposition under provocations and 
affronts ;* and perhaps the most simple and accu- 
rate definition that can be given of it is, A temper 
of mind not easily stirred up to resentment Yet, 
though passive in the sense we have stated, it is 
not a mere latent or negative quality, but one 
which must exert a positive and visible control over 
our external deportment, and should therefore be 
assiduously cultivated. 

Meekness toward God is an humble and acqui- 

* Macknight on the passage. 



MEEKNESS. 237 

escing submission of the soul to the truth of all 
his doctrines, however they may through their 
mysteriousness oppose the pride of human reason ; 
to the excellence of all his commandments, how- 
ever severely they may tax the vicious inclina- 
tions of our nature ; and the paternal wisdom of 
all his providence, however it may defeat or post- 
pone the wishes our hearts have formed, and 
afflict us with present sorrow. It is thus, the fruit 
of the Spirit, which works in us faith to receive 
the Divine testimony in all things, and contrition 
of repentance to feel our ill desert and our need of 
salutary chastisement. 

Meekness toward men is a refraining from re- 
venge or anger, however much our patience may 
be tried by their injuries or tiynr crimes. It is 
not weakness nor cowardice, which bears because 
it cannot or dare not resist, for it is the accom- 
paniment of faithfulness, which fears nothing but 
the displeasure of God. Nor is it insensibility or 
stoicism, for it is the accompaniment of love, and 
goodness, and gentleness, and fidelity, toward all 



238 MEEKNESS. 

men. But it is a rational, benevolent, and heroic 
temper, wrought in the soul by the Spirit of God, 
through the influence of Divine truth. Moses was 
meek above all men that were upon the face of the 
earth, and presided with the most devoted love 
over the children of Israel, while they continually 
insulted him, and rebelled against God. Jesus 
Christ was meek, and, though he might have 
swept his impudent and persecuting enemies to 
instant death, he continued to intreat them with 
his love, and offer them salvation even to the end. 
In the estimation of the world at large, it is con- 
sidered infamous to brook an insult, or suffer an 
injury unrevenged, and they call it honour to wash 
out a hasty aspersion in the blood of the reviler. 
But the brute of the field, nay, the meanest reptile 
that crawls, shares in such a spirit. Meekness is 
the elevation of the soul above such brutal im- 
pulses, and he, who practises it, aspires to rule 
over his own heart, a nobler conquest than the 
Macedonian or the Corsican ever won. " Better," 
said the wise man, " is he that ruleth his own 



\ 

MEEKNESS. 239 

heart, than he that taketh a city;" because the 
task is more difficult, more rarely accomplished, 
and, when accomplished, has more valuable results. 
Not to feel the wounds of insult and wrong, is to 
be like a stone ; to feel and desire revenge, is to 
be like the brute ; but to bear and to forgive, is 
to approach as near the glory of God as human 
nature can. 

The Christian is meek, because he traces, in all 
he is called to endure, the hand of his God. No- 
thing, not even the insults and injuries of wicked 
men, can occur without his wise and gracious per- 
mission, as Attila, who poured his desolating fury 
over the fairest portions of Europe, was called 
"the scourge of God." The Christian will look 
beyond the scourge to the hand that wields it. 
He dares not be angry, he dares not be otherwise 
than meek, because to be angry would be to rebel 
against his God. Our beloved Master, the pattern 
of our meekness, looking forward to the shame 
and tortures of the cross, prayed for the wicked 
hands which crucified and slew him, and submitted 



240 MEEKNESS. 

to them as unto God, saying, " Not my will, but 
thine he done." In the same spirit, the dying 
Stephen would not have his martyrdom laid to his 
murderers' charge, while he looked upon his cruel 
death as a shorter passage to heaven's glory. We 
condemn ourselves for murmuring against the 
chastisements of God, when they come in the 
form of sickness and bereavement ; but sickness 
and death are no more his instruments than our I 
fellow men are. We know that those afflictions 
are necessary to the discipline of our spirits, to 
the trial of our faith, and the development of our 
Christian virtues, and for this reason we should re- 
joice in them ; but upon what principle shall we 
justify impatience and anger, when the discipline 
is administered by the agency of men ? 

The Christian remembers what God hath borne 
with and forgiven him. No insults he can receive 
from men, no wrongs they can do him, can com- 
pare with those of his sins against God. Yet God 
has released him from his debt of ten thousand 
talents, and can he now take by the throat his fel- 



MEEKNESS. 241 

low servant, who owes him but a hundred pence ? 
The joy of being forgiven so great a debt, should 
readily reconcile us to forgive such petty claims ; 
nay, in justice we should consider God's kindness 
to have cancelled them all. Can he demand square 
accounts with his neighbour, who cannot settle 
his account with God ? 

Besides all that we suffer for righteousness' 
sake, we suffer in the cause of God. We follow 
the Captain of Salvation to the war, and with him, 
notwithstanding all, we shall be more than con- 
querors. The true soldier rights, not from malice, 
but for glory. He strikes, not because he thirsts 
for blood, but that he may win his way to fame. 
He sinks, from the warrior into the murderer, 
when he burns with hate. He loves the difficulty 
of the contest, because it enhances the praise of 
the achievement. It would be little glory for the 
Christian to meet with no resistance, no suffering, 
no wounds, in his faithfulness to God amidst a 
world of sinners. He must endure hardness as a 
good soldier of Christ. The taunts, the wounds, 
21 



242 MEEKNESS. 

the dust of the conflict, are all necessary to the 
splendour of his crown. God will recompense him 
for all, and according to all, that he suffers; and 
they who stand highest in the glory and blessed- 
ness of heaven, are " the most noble army of the 
martyrs," who have " come out of great tribula- 
tion." Shall the Christian then be angry at that 
which opens a way to higher blessedness ? Shall 
he strike in revenge of a wound, which pensions 
him upon the eternal bounty of his God ? Shall 
he permit the malice of sinful men to rob him of 
his crown ? The weapons of his warfare are not 
carnal, but spiritual. He loves the world, but his 
warfare is with his own heart, and he even rejoices 
in wrongs from others, for they teach him how to 
subdue it. This is the sense of the apostle's ex- 
hortation, " For consider Him that endured such 
contradiction of sinners, against himself, lest ye be 
wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet 
resisted unto blood, striving against sin." The 
struggle is not against sinners, but against sin ; and 
the apostle goes on to say, "Despise not the 



MEEKNESS. 243 

chastening of the Lord, neither faint when thou 
art rebuked of him ;" thus teaching us, that the 
contradiction of sinners is the chastisement and 
rebuke of the Lord. 

The Christian is meek from his anxiety to pre- 
serve and recommend the honour of religion. The 
Christian lives not merely for himself, but for God 
and the world. The seeds of Divine truth are to 
be sown and cherished in his heart, but the verdure 
and fruits which germinate from them, appear in 
the character and actions of his daily life. His 
virtue, to indicate its Divine original, must shine 
superior to that of the world; and perhaps no 
quality is so demonstrative of higher principle as 
meekness under insult. It was the unresisting and 
meek suffering of the early martyrs, that made 
them conquerors over the rack, the flame, and the 
wild beasts of the theatre. They had no other 
defence, no other weapon. They professed the 
religion of a meek and lowly Jesus, and it was to 
drive them from that religion that their enemies 
tortured them to the death. If one of them had 



244 MEEKNESS. 

railed from his stake, or cursed from his cross, or 
gnashed his teeth, and shaken his impotent fist at 
his tormentors, their victory would have been as 
complete, as by his recantation. The nobleness of 
his courage would have been lost, and the sublimi- 
ty of the scene destroyed. It was the meekness, 
more than the blood of the martyrs, which was the 
seed of the Church. Courage and endurance were 
virtues, of which the heathen world had ten thou- 
sand examples, before Jesus was crucified on Cal- 
vary, or Paul beheaded at Kome. But meekness 
in suffering, and forgiving love toward enemies, 
even in the sharpest extremities of oppression, 
were new virtues, which despite of sophistry and 
malice, and power, established the religion of God 
over the hoary pride of the most ancient supersti- 
tions. Thus it is with the Christian and the world 
now. Well doth the devil know, that if he can 
distort the Christian's face with envy and anger and 
revenge ; if he can pervert the Christian's tongue 
to revilings and stormy rebuke ; if he can arm him 
for quarrel instead of love ; if he can substitute 



MEEKNESS. 245 

the venom of his own serpent malice for the meek- 
ness of the Lamb of God ; he has destroyed the 
attraction of Christianity, seduced his enemy to 
his own ground, and made the victory complete. 
The querulous irritability, the morose sulkiness, 
the gusty passions of crabbed Christians, under the 
provocations of the world, and, especially, the 
provocations of fellow Christians, do more for the 
devil, than all their prayers, and professions, and 
moneyed gifts can do for God. When Christians 
quarrel, whoever seems to win, the devil is the only 
gainer. They may get the shells, but he has the 
kernel. It is indeed necessary often to contend 
for truth, and even with good men, but the contest 
should ever be in love and meekness ; and they are 
the best advocates of truth, who " speak the truth 
in love," and " show, out of a good conversation, 
their works in meekness of wisdom." 

We must not forget, however, that the same 
spirit of meekness, which calmly and patiently en- 
dures insults, will also be slow to provoke others 
to anger. It is but little credit to us, if, while we 
21* 



246 MEEKNESS. 

maintain our own composure of mind, we wanton- 
ly, or through neglect, disturb the serenity of 
others. The meek man will therefore be not only 
kind in his feelings, but courteous in his manners. 
Many professing Christians would be startled at 
the idea of impoliteness being a sin and courtesy 
a duty, yet the apostle commands us to be cour- 
teous. The hollow politeness of the world is hy- 
pocrisy, but Christian politeness is the reality of 
that to which the world pretends. So far from 
courteousness being conformity to the world, the 
w r orld in its courtesy outwardly conforms to the 
rules of Christianity. The Gospel enjoins, "in 
honour preferring one another," and the polite 
man imitates it by giving place to his neighbour, 
and calling himself his " obedient servant." No- 
thino* is more rude than egotism and arrogance, or 
a selfish insisting upon our own convenience to 
the inconvenience of others ; and meekness teaches 
us to lay aside all these, so that the meek man can 
scarcely fail to be a courteous man. But this has 



MEEKNESS. 247 

been already treated at large under the head of 
Gentleness. 

The meek man will" govern his tongue. "Out 
of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh." 
The meek man cannot be harsh in speech. We 
do not find brambles growing on grape-vines, nor 
thistles on fig-trees ; neither do we hear vitupera- 
tive and annoying language from a gentle and for- 
giving spirit. " A soft answer turneth away wrath, 
but grievous words stir up anger." Rough words 
are like oil, which make the flame of anger burn 
the fiercer; meek words often, like water, put it 
out. " And what," asks Tertullian, " is the differ- 
ence between the man who is irritated, and the 
man who has irritated him, except that the last did 
wrong first, and the first afterward ?" Even when 
we rebuke, it is to be done with meekness, as the 
apostle exhorts, "In meekness instructing them 
that oppose themselves ;" and again, " If a brother 
be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual 
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, con- 
sidering thyself lest thou also be tempted." How 



248 MEEKNESS. 

meekly did Christ bear with his disciples, " being 
grieved for the hardness of their hearts !" Nay, 
meekness often requires th'at we speak not at all, 
as Paul tells the pious slaves, u to please their mas- 
ters in all things, not answering again ;" and as our 
Lord was like " a lamb dumb before his shearers, 
opening not his mouth." It was said of the 
heathen Socrates, that it was known when he was 
angry, by his being silent. The tongue is an un- 
ruly evil, and it is best sometimes to keep it im- 
prisoned by the teeth, which God has given us to 
fence it in with, than to let it blab us into trouble. 
The lion, when he is angry, lashes himself into a 
passion with his tail ; but men lash their rage with 
their tongue, and the faster and longer they talk, 
the more angry they become. " I have known," 
says Cicero, " many sin by speaking, few by keep- 
ing silence ; it is therefore more difficult to know 
how to be silent than how to speak." There is a 
Spanish proverb to the same effect ; "Any fool may 
babble, but it takes a wise man to hold his 
tongue." 



MEEKNESS. 249 

The meek man will meet insult with kindness, 
for, as kindness to all men at all times is a Christian 
duty, the Christian in his meekness will allow 
nothing to interrupt it. " Christ," saith Peter, 
" also suffered for us, leaving us an example that 
we should follow his steps ;" and what was that 
example but blessing even his enemies I Kindness 
meekly, not ostentatiously rendered, will soften 
any heart in which a spark of humanity yet lin- 
gers. Oh ! is it not a glorious revenge to convince 
our enemies of their error, and turn them into 
friends ? Yet it is a triumph none but the meek 
can achieve ; for to set about showing kindness, 
with the selfish aim of mortifying those who have 
done us evil by a proud display of superior virtue, 
will, instead of putting coals of fire on their heads, 
only burn our own hands. Meekness is the con- 
quering charm. 

The spirit of meekness must be assiduously cul- 
tivated. It is one of the hardest lessons in the 
school of Christ, where, indeed, nothing can be 
learned but by hard study and diligent practice. 



250 MEEKNESS. 

It is not a virtue by itself, but a sweet consequence I 
of many others. 

If we would be meek, we must not be ambitious I 

after worldly good. Ambition is an aspiring to I 

1 
be above others, and, therefore, a struggle with I 

them, for none are willing to be undermost, j 
Hence come envy, hate, slander, malice, re- J 
venge. We must root out the bramble, if we 1 
would not have its thorns ; and when thistles J 
are once in a field, it requires no small husban- | 
dry to get rid of them. But a meek Christian, 
with his hopes set upon a better country, will 
never be so anxious about the distinctions of this ; ] 
and being content to be quiet, others will let him 
enjoy what he asks. "Such a man," says the 
excellent Leifchild, "walks in a calm and seques- 
tered vale, and hears only at a distance the clash- 
ing of ambitious interests in the regions above 
him. He hears, but he is not attracted thither." 

There is much of true though quaint philosophy 
in this page of John Bunyan : " We will come 



MEEKNESS. 251 

again to this Valley of Humiliation. It is the 
most fruitful piece of ground in all these parts. 
It is a fat ground, and as you see consisteth much 
in meadows. Behold how green the valley is, 
aud how beautiful with lilies ! I have known 
many labouring men who have got good estates 
in this valley (for God resisteth the proud, but 
giveth grace to the humble). Some also have 
wished that the next way to their Father's house 
might be here, that they might be troubled no 
more with hills or mountains to go over ; but the 
way is the way, and there is an end. 

"Now as they were walking along and talking, 
they espied a boy feeding his father's sheep. The 
boy was in very mean clothes, but of a fresh and 
well-favoured countenance, and as he sat by him- 
self he sung .... 

" He that is down, needs fear no fall ; 
He that is low, no pride ; 
He that is humble, ever shall 
Have God to be his guide. 



252 MEEKNESS. 

I am content with what I have, 

Little it be, or much : 
And, Lord, contentment still I crave, 

Because thou savest such. 

Fulness to those abundance is, 

That go a pilgrimage ; 
Here little, and hereafter bliss, 

Is best from age to age." 

"There, said the guide, do you hear him? I 

will dare to say this boy lives a merrier life, and 

I 
wears more of the herb called heart's-ease, in his I 

bosom, than he that is clothed in silk and velvet, j 

And so we will proceed with our discourse." 

It is this very freedom from worldly ambition, 1 
to which our Saviour refers when he says, 
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the 1 
earth." Surely they who live in quiet get more I 
good of the earth, than those who are in continual 1 
trouble, and struggling to get more. 

Vanity, which is a base form of ambition, must 1 
also be laid aside if we would be meek. For they, I 



MEEKNESS. 253 

who are continually anxious to get the admiration 
of others, can never seem meek or amiable in 
their eyes. To desire the praise of God is noble, 
but the praise of men is not worth its cost. It is 
at tbis the apostle strikes, when speaking of Chris- 
tian women; for in his day, as now, it seems 
they were fond of attracting notice by gay dresses, 
A strange, though common, error; since if a 
woman have beauty she impairs it by decoration, 
and if she have it not, the decoration makes her 
homeliness .the more remarkable. Brilliants are 
always set plain, and all the tinsel in the world 
cannot turn paste into a diamond. "Whose 
adorning," says he, "let it not be the outward 
adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of 
gold, or of putting on of apparel ; but let it be the 
hidden man of the heart in that which is not cor- 
ruptible ; even the ornament of .a meek and quiet 
spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price." 
Meekness is thus more than the cestus of Venus, 
charming God and man. What is true of that 



22 



254 MEEKNESS. 

form of vanity which he particularly rebukes, is 
true of every other. 

We must study also the great examples of tri- 
umphant meekness, which are written for our 
learning in the word of God ; for there we find 
meekness the rarest, as well as the most excellent 
character ; and we can never hope to keep com- 
pany with Abel, and Noah, and Isaac, and Moses, 
and Samuel, and Job, and Jesus, and his early 
people, in heaven, unless we follow their meek 
footsteps upon earth. 

We must, above all, humble ourselves before 
God in prayer, asking for that Spirit to dwell in 
our hearts, one of whose fruits is meekness. For 
none but he who is humble with God has learned 
to be lowly among men. Therefore it is, that he 
chastens us to make us meek, if we will not learn 
to be so without it. Oh ! let us anticipate the end 
of his discipline by lying low at his feet, as it be- 
comes sinners to do, who have nothing to demand, 
though all to ask. The spirit of Christ is the 



MEEKNESS. 255 

spirit of meekness, which none bnt God can give ; 
yet "if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he 
is none of his." 



TEMPERANCE. 



To have a just acquaintance with an author's 
meaning, it is very necessary, especially if he 
wrote in another age or language, to ascertain 
the exact sense in which he used his terms. For 
a word often comes, for various reasons, to differ 
widely from its original signification, and by at- 
taching our own idea to it, we make the author 
say something else, or more, or less, than he 
meant to say. This is particularly true of the 
word temperance, and it therefore requires a care- 
ful definition, that we may know what the apostle 



22* 



25T 



258 TEMPERANCE. 

intends by the fruit of the Spirit which he calls by 
this name. 

The Greek term, by its etymology, is self-com- 
mand, or the governing of one's self. The earlier 
ethical writers among the Greeks (those of the | 
school of Socrates) first determined its meaning to 
be, continence , or a proper moderation of our pas- 
sions and appetites, but especially those for food 
and drink. Afterwards Aristotle (who exerted a 3 
greater influence over the opinions of the world 
than any other uninspired writer, ancient or mo- 
dern,) distinguished carefully between continence 
and temperance, understanding, by continence, | 
merely the denial of indulgence to any irregular 
desires or inclinations we may feel, and by tern- 
perance, the healthful regulation of our desires and 
appetites themselves, preventing their excess. The 
one, it is easy to see, may be the result of virtue 
or not ; the other is a virtue itself. A thief, who 
abstains from intoxication merely that he may 
more securely commit crime ; a prize-fighter, who 
denies himself indulgences while training for the 



TEMPERANCE. 259 

ring; an invalid, who fears the inroads of excess 
on his life ; or one who refrains only from a dread 
of worldly disgrace, can scarcely be called virtuous, 
though he may exert some self-command. It is in. 
him one selfish principle overcoming another that 
is weaker. But the man who learns to control his 
desires themselves, and keep them within their 
proper limit, because he considers an nndue incli- 
nation sinful, is truly virtuous, because sincerely 
temperate. The one is abstinence from the overt 
act, the other a purification of the heart. The one 
may tolerate an intemperate soul in a temperate 
body, the other rules the soul itself. The one 
might yield to temptation if it could be done 
with safety, the other maintains an unshaken firm- 
ness. 

Socrates was accustomed to say that a man of 
true science would not be intemperate ; and if he 
meant by true science, true virtue, which is not 
only the knowledge of what is right, but a hearty 
love for it, he spoke truth ; but if he meant only 
knowledge, he erred, as daily experience and ob- 



260 TEMPERANCE. 

servation prove to us, for men are continually 
doing what they know to be wrong, and often 
what they know to be hurtful. Medical men, of 
great skill in their profession, have become glut- 
tons and drunkards ; nay, have written learnedly 
upon gout, and surfeits, and delirium tremens, 
while qualifying themselves for those very dis- 
eases. The temperate man would not exceed, be- 
cause he hates not merely the consequences, but 
the vice itself. 

There are those again, who, by their constitu- 
tion of body, seem to have no tendencies to crimi- 
nal indulgence of this character, and, therefore, 
are not subject to temptations; yet, though this 
may in some respects be a happy nature, it can- 
not be called virtue, for it belongs to the body, 
and not to the soul. Temperance is the restrain- 
ing of propensities which, if unchecked, would be- 
come excessive. For every appetite, the excessive 
indulgence of which is criminal, was implanted by 
God in our natures, and the rule of it committed 
to the soul. Adam in his innocence had all the 



TEMPERANCE. 261 

appetites which we naturally have, and the hu- 
manity of our blessed Lord was " tempted like as 
we are, yet without sin." A man without pas- 
sions or appetites, if we could conceive of such an 
one, would be an imperfectly constituted, not a 
virtuous man. Indeed, he would not be of the 
same nature with us, and, therefore, incapable of 
virtues required of us. A spiritual angel, who, 
having no need of food or drink, has neither hun- 
ger nor thirst, cannot be said to be temperate in 
those respects ; wherefore our Lord, when he 
wished to give us a pattern of human virtues, and 
of temperance among the rest, took not on him 
the nature of angels, but flesh and blood. For 
the same reason, the presence of naturally strong 
appetites is not criminal in itself, but the undue 
indulgence of them ; and the man, whose appetites 
are stronger, and yet restrains them, has a higher 
virtue than he, whose appetites, being weaker, are 
governed with less difficulty. 

Neither does temperance suppose the entire 
eradication of these tendencies, for they are more 



262 TEMPERANCE. 

or less necessary accidents* to our present mode of 
being, and to attempt to put off our being, is a 
sort of suicide, and a rebellion against God. It is 
said of Origen, an early father of the Church, that 
he held such an opinion, but deeply repented of it 
on mature consideration. Well he might, for an 
old man in his doting decay, cannot be called 
virtuous, because years have relieved him of pas- 
sion and appetite, neither do we become virtuous 
as we approach the frigidity of age. Paul, in 
vehement disgust at the temptations of appetite, 
earnestly prayed to be delivered from his body of 
sin and death, but an honest review of the con- 
nection will show that his prayer was for grace to 1 
control his body ; and in another passage, (2 Cor. 
xii. 7, 8, 9, 10,) he thus speaks of himself: "Lest 1 
I should be exalted above measure through the j 
abundance of revelations, there was given to me j 
a thorn in the flesh, (which Bishop Bull, Grotius, 
and others, consider to have been some distressing | 
and deforming bodily disease,) a messenger of 
Satan sent to buffet me, lest I should be exalted 



TEMPERANCE. 263 

above measure. For this thing I besought the 
Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And 
he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee ; 
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 
Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmi- 
ties, that the power of Christ may rest upon me . 

for when I am weak, then am I strong." 

Now, whether the opinion given by Grotius and 
Bull be the correct one or not, the principle is just 
in reference to any infirmities. We must subdue 
and control them by the help of God, and not seek 
the annihilation of the natural qualities from which 
they arise. The notion of superior purity and ad- 
vantage in a state of seclusion from those relations 
which constitute the closest bonds of social life, 
is erroneous from the fact, that we so refuse to 
discharge the duties the Scripture makes incum- 
bent upon us ; and the Saviour, though, for wise 
reasons, he remained without many ties which 
God intended should connect us with happiness, 
blessed them and honoured them. ' But the best 
answer to that opinion is, that the eradication of 



264 TEMPERANCE. 

these tendencies is impossible, and not promised 
in this life even by the grace of God ; which 
should teach us to resist temptation here, en- 
couraged by the blessed hope of that better life 
where our bodies like our souls shall be pure, and 
neither hunger nor thirst, but be for ever beyond 
the reach of temptation. To be above these 
temptations would be to have a higher life on 
earth than our Saviour had, and to be exposed to 
worse temptations of pride and self-sufficiency 
Every thorn in our flesh is necessary as a goad to 
quicken the Christian pilgrim on his way to 
heaven ; and observation has shown that those, 
who are unnaturally placed beyond the reach of 
any appetite, are not in heart more pure, but less 
so than others. 

The Latin word, from which our term temper- 
ance is taken, expresses this idea. If a probable 
derivation of it be correct, it means the timely use 
or regulation of ourselves. But it was easily 
brought to mean restraint or moderation. 



TEMPERANCE. 265 

"Who can refrain (temperate) himself from tears?"* 

asks a Roman poet. The Latins speak also of 
tempering the strength of wine with water, as we 
do of tempering steel ; or, as in the oft-quoted 
beautiful expression, " God tempers the wind to 
the shorn lamb ;" or, in that touching petition of 
our evening prayer, " So temper our sleep that it 
be not disorderly."! Indeed, our common word 
temper means the proper adjustment of our pas- 
sions, our moral disposition ; for, though vulgarly 
it is said, that " a man shows temper," when the 
idea is that he is angry, it is a wrong use of the 
word ; since, on the other hand we say, "a man 
shows admirable temper," when we mean that 
lie preserves his calmness in difficult circum- 
stances. 

These pains have been tak^n with the definition 
of the word, to show that the temperance of which 
the apostle speaks has its seat in the soul. 

* Quis talia fando temperet a lachrymis? Virg. 

t Evening Prayer in the Liturgy of the Reformed Dutch Church. 

23 



266 TEMPERANCE. 

The fruit of the Spirit is " temperance." 
It is altogether of a higher nature, requiring a 
far greater degree of moral strength, than that 
temperance which belongs to the body alone, 
which, indeed, is a consequence of temperance, 
not spiritual temperance itself.^ The mind was 
made to rule over the body, and unless the ruler 
be well regulated, the subject cannot be. The 
effect of sin has been to invert the order of nature, 
by giving the senses and appetites rule over the 
soul ; and the triumph of grace is the restoration 
of the soul to its original supremacy over the body, 
which is done, not by weakening the body, but 
strengthening the soul. The soul is strengthened, 
as our holy text tells us, by the influences of the 
Spirit of God. The quickening of spiritual life is 
in regeneration, but afterwards it is increased by 
the effects of faith, hope*, and love. 

The Christian has full confidence in the wisdom 
of all God's requirements, recognizes that his very 
heart is visible to God's all-seeing eye, and that 
he is responsible at the judgment for every thought 



TEMPERANCE. 



267 



and motive as well as act. He therefore conforms 
his heart to the Divine will, cultivates communion 
with God, and keeps his thoughts with all dili- 
gence, for they are the issues of life. He believes 
fully in the redemption of his soul by the merits 
of Christ, and the sufficiency of Christ to sustain 
him even to the perfection of glory. 

Difficult then as may be his struggles with 
temptation, he has hope in his conflict, the hope 
of victory, and hope of reward. 

Such faith and hope in God must awaken love 
to him ; and this love makes his efforts cheerful 
and pleasant. He loves to be what God loves, and 
this he cannot be without governing his sinful pro- 
pensities. So that, where faith, and hope, and love 
abide, temperance abides. As the apostle says, 
" Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, 
do all to the glory of God." 

" Temperance," says Jeremy Taylor, "consists 
in the action of the soul principally, for it is a 
grace which chooses natural means in order to 
proper, and natural, and holy ends. It is exer- 



268 



TEMPERANCE. 



cised about eating and drinking because they are 
necessary, but, therefore, it permits the use of 
them only as they minister to lawful ends." Cer- 
tainly he that eats and drinks thus, will be guilty 
of no excess. 

The first rule, then, for the cultivation of tem- 
perance, should be the entire consecration of the 
heart to the glory of God. The heart is the foun- 
tain, and all the issues from it must be like itself. 
The pure in heart have a more than Midas-touch, 
transmuting the occasions of temptation into aids 
of holiness. With the helmet of hope, the shield 
of faith, the breast-plate of righteousness, and 
greaves of the preparation of the Gospel of peace, 
the Christian is unconquerable. Repeated bap- 
tisms in the blood of Jesus, and the pure waters 
of holy truth, have the double effect of washing 
away guilt and preserving the soul invulnerable. 
We should not degrade the grace of temperance 
into a mere habit of earthly expediency, and satisfy 
ourselves with an outward conformity to its rules. 
It is not ascetic self-torture that recommends us to 



TEMPERANCE. 269 

a holy God. None but " the pure in heart" can 
" see God." If you would be temperate, be a 
Christian. 

Yet, in considering the influence of the mind 
over the body, we must not forget the influence of 
the body over the mind. The sin of intemperance 
does not lie only in the abuse of God's bounties at 
the moment, but in the evil consequences of such 
abuse to the soul itself. It is sufficiently notorious, 
that no excess of indulgence can be permitted to 
the body without discomposing the mind, and pol- 
luting the moral temper. The drunkard not only 
loses discretion of thought, but is disposed to un- 
cleanness, anger, and every vicious passion. The 
glutton stupefies his mind, and sensualizes his 
spirit in the same manner. A very large propor- 
tion of crime is committed under the provocations 
of intemperance, and though drunkards are more 
notorious, gluttons are hardly less numerous. It 
must be, therefore, that in proportion as we exceed 
the limits of moderation, and approach the degree 



23* 



270 TEMPERANCE. 

of drunkenness or gluttony, we become guilty of 
the crimes to which those excesses prompt. 

Self-denial in the use of food and drinks is thus 
another rule for the cultivation of temperance. If 
we allow our inclinations to carry us to the utmost 
verge which reason permits, it will require but a 
slight temptation to make us cross the almost im- 
perceptible line which divides it from wrong. Our 
propensities are downward, and increase in impetus 
as they descend ; we must arrest them in time, 
before Ave reach the limit, or we shall be carried 
over it. Besides, we must accustom ourselves to 
the conflict, before temptation comes ; and as the 
fencer plays with foils, before he adventures with 
ground weapons, we must skill ourselves in self- 
denial of things lawful, if we would acquire the 
habit of defence from sin itself. Thus the three 
rules for perfection, which the Saviour gave us, 
are, " to deny ourselves," " to take up (not wait 
for it to be laid upon us) our cross daily," and " to 
follow him." The Apostle Paul took a lesson in 
this from the Athletes of the games, who were in 



TEMPERANCE. 27l 

training sometimes for years in order to win the 
prize, by abstaining from all diet which would un- 
duly stimulate, or practices which would enervate 
the system. " Every man," says he, " that striveth 
for the mastery, is temperate in all things. Now 
they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we 
an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncer- 
tainly. So fight I, not as one that beateth the air. 
But I keep under my body, and bring it into sub- 
jection ; lest that by any means, when I have 
preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 
From which we see, that he considered this dis- 
cipline of self-denial essential to his success in 
gaining the crown of life, and that all his faith and 
knowledge would not prevent him from apostacy, 
if he did not subdue his body by such careful 
regimen. 

In another passage he has a yet more significant 
illustration. " Know ye not that ye are the temple 
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in 
you ? If any man defile the temple of God, him 
shall God destroy, for the temple of God is liohj, 



272 TEMPERANCE. 

(that is, consecrated to him,) which temple are 
ye." And again, u What ! know ye not that your 
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in 
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your 
own?" The body of the Christian is, by the 
Spirit of God dwelling in him, made a habitation 
of God. With what care should we guard and 
preserve it from the least shadow of defilement? 
Every abuse of appetite is as a sacrilege in the 
house of God, and temperance is the ministering 
angel to keep the temple pure. 

In Romans he uses another figure : " I beseech 
you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, 
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, (consecrated,) acceptable unto God, which 
is your reasonable service." Our bodies are to 
be as sacrifices laid upon God's altar, living yet 
consecrated, as a reasonable duty in us, which 
God for Christ's sake will accept. It is difficult to 
imagine such a consecration of our bodies without 
a holy and cautious self-denial, for he, who uses 
his body for God's glory, and not merely for his 



TEMPERANCE. 2*73 

own pleasure, will have God's glory more than his 
pleasure in view, and not push his license to ex- 
tremes. 

Yet it is not necessary to temperance that we 
take no pleasure in things permitted, for God him- 
self has, in his goodness and wisdom, associated 
pleasure with a proper satisfaction of appetite, 
which, instead <*f rejecting, we ought to be thank- 
ful for. There is no reason why a man should 
choose unsavoury food, rather than that which is 
at once healthful and pleasing to the taste ; but to 
be very nice and curious in our meats and drinks, 
argues a childish and petty idolatry of appetite, 
even though we should not eat or drink to excess. 
A proper taste in the choice and dressing of our 
food may be subservient to temperance and health. 
A French gourmand, who indulges himself in a 
great variety of light and well-cooked dishes, is 
' : sinful in his devotion to his palate ; but is scarcely 
so gross and beast-like, certainly not so neglectful 
of health, as the glutton among us, who gorges 
himself with heavy meats till his blood almost 



274 TEMPERANCE. 

stagnates with thickness, and his humours are 
heavy and oppressive. It is not in the quantity 
only, but the quality of our food, that we are to 
practise self-denial. In general, the simpler and 
lighter the food, the more favourable to the health 
of the body and the health of the soul. 

This subject the physician can treat better than 
the moralist, but it is worthy of our consideration, 
that the promise of God is, "Thy bread and water 
shall be sure ;" and that it is most probable neither 
animal food nor wine were used by men until after 
the flood. In the paradise of innocence, the hap- 
py pair ate of the fruits of the garden, and drank 
of the rivers that watered it, yet they were satis- 
fied until they fell into sin. " There were then," 
says Seneca, (for the ancient heathen had dim tra- 
ditions of that happy time,) " no beds of state, nor 
ornaments of gold and embroidery, nor the re- 
morses that attend them, but the heavens were 
their canopy, and the glories of them their spec- 
tacle. There was no fear of the house falling, or 
the rustling of a rat behind the arras .... but 



TEMPERANCE. 275 

they had the open air and breathing room, crystal 
fountains, refreshing shades, the meadows dressed 
in their native beauty, and they lived contentedly. 
.... Happy the man that eats only for hunger, 
and drinks only for thirst ; that stands upon his 
own feet, lives by his reason rather than by fash- 
ion, and provides for use and necessity, and not 
for pomp. Let us curb our appetites, encourage 
our virtues, and have our riches within ourselves 
rather than without, for fortune has the least mark 
of a man when he shrinks himself into a narrow 
compass. Let my bed be narrow and plain, and 
my clothes simple. My meat with little expense 
and little service, and neither a burthen to my 
purse nor my body. That, which is too little for 
luxury, is more than enough for nature." Such 
was the language of the Roman philosopher, (alas ! 
not the practice of Seneca the courtier ;) how well 
would it be for many Christians to make it in 
1 truth their own ? 

A yet further reason for self-denial is, that the 
limits, which we think are those of lawful indul- 



276 TEMPERANCE. 

gencc, are continually though imperceptibly en- 
larging. He, who once thought a small house 
would be enough for him, finds himself straitened 
in a palace ; and he, who once intended to be sa- 
tisfied with a decent competence, wishes to make 
his thousands hundreds of them, and his hundreds 
of thousands millions. You can no more fill the 
heart of man, by complying with its wishes, than 
a vessel pierced with holes can be filled with 
water. The only method is to stop them up, or 
at least reduce them into narrower compass. 
Happiness is to be found rather in checking our 
inclinations than in gratifying them. It is thus 
with our appetites. The more we indulge them, 
the more we increase them. There is an Italian 
proverb, " He who has drunk the ocean, wants 
another bottle." The only method of safety is to 
deny ourselves at first. Every day, by such rule, 
our wants will become less, and our self-denial 
more easy. Self-denial has its pains as well as 
pleasures, but it has less pain and more pleasure 
than indulged appetite. By every decrease we 



TEMPERANCE. 277 

make of the body's demands, we give the soul 
more time and strength to attend to its religious 
duties. We put off so much of the body of sin 
and death, and assimilate ourselves to the lot of 
the blessed. We make our expenses less, and, 
therefore, have fewer pains to provide for them, 
less covetousness and idolatry of gain, less envy of 
riches, and less temptation to dishonesty. " See 
my dinner of herbs," said a Roman patriot, whom 
a foreign emissary would have tempted with gold 
to betray his country ; as if he had said, a man, 
who can be satisfied with so little, need never sell 
himself for gold. Happy the Christian, whose few 
wants never tempt him to betray his Lord ! Plain 
food and decent furniture have made few bankrupt- 
cies. Extravagance and defalcations go together. 
God and man are robbed by intemperance. 

Besides, a self-denying youth, in ordinary cir- 
cumstances, makes a healthful and vigorous old 
age ; and the Christian, who has so short a time 
to serve his Master upon earth, should husband 
his strength, and make the best use of it to the 
24 



2^8 TEMPERANCE. 

last. That aged Christian is indeed an honoured 
veteran, who, when most men fail, can yet say, in 
grateful fidelity to his Master, still 

" Let me be thy servant. 
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty ; 
For in my youth I never did apply 
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood; 
Nor did I with unbashful forehead woo 
The means of weakness and debility; 
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, 
Frosty but kindly; let me go with thee, 
I'll do the service of a younger man." 

This subject might be enlarged upon much 
more, but let us leave it here. The consecration 
of the heart to God by faith in his Son; daily 
prayer for the grace of his Spirit, daily study of 
his holy word, daily industry in doing good, and 
the daily denial of our fleshly appetites, that 
we may have time, and strength, and purity of 
purpose for the blessed service of God; making 



TEMPERANCE. 279 

his glory our chief aim, and our best happiness ; 
and living, as far as in us lies, free from the shack- 
les of the flesh and the attractions of earth, that 
we may be, body, soul and spirit, willing and con- 
tinual sacrifices to God, are the true methods of 
cultivating the temperance which is the fruit of 
the Spirit, for it is that temperance itself. The 
perfection of the heavenly state lvill be in a spir- 
itual body as the dwelling place of the holy soul, 
when the holiness of the soul within shall irradiate 
and illustrate its temple, as the divinity of Jesus 
shone through the body of his humanity upon the 
Mount of the Transfiguration ; the soul all holi- 
ness, the body all purity. The holy and purified 
humanity of Enoch, by a life of piety and tem- 
perance, approached so near to heaven that it 
needed not death to bear him across the threshold. 
The true Christian, through a godly temperance, 
may know by sweet experience something of this 
transformation ; for, as we see in men of gross and 
intemperate indulgences, that 



280 TEMPERANCE. 

"The soul grows clotted by contagion, 
Embodies and embrutes till she quite lose 
The Divine quality of her first being;" 

the reverse is true, that a holy and temperate habit 
of soul 

"Begins to cast a beam on the outward shape, 
The unpolluted temple of the mind, 
And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, 
Till all be made immortal." 

Let us conclude our meditation with a prayer, 
written for us by the good Jeremy Taylor. 

"0 Almighty and gracious God and Father of 
men and angels, who openest thy hand and fillest 
all things with plenty, and has provided for thy 
servants sufficient to satisfy all their needs ; teach 
me to use thy creatures soberly and temperately, 
that I may not, with undue meat and drink, make 
the temptations of my enemy to prevail upon me, 
or my spirit unapt for the performance of my 
duty, or my affections sensual and unholy. 



TEMPERANCE. 281 

our God, never suffer that the blessings which 
thou givest us, may either minister to sin or sick- 
ness, but to health and holiness and thanksgiving; 

7 © © " 

that in the strength of thy provisions I may cheer- 
fully and actively and diligently serve thee ; that 
I may worthily feast at thy table here, and be ac- 
counted worthy through thy grace to be admitted 
to thy table hereafter, at the eternal supper of the 
Lamb, to sing an hallelujah to God the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. 
Amen." 



24* 



XL 



"AGAINST SUCH THERE IS NO LAW." 



After considering, as we have done, the great 
purity and extent of those virtues, here declared to 
be the result of the Spirit's influence upon the-x 
Christian character, we should deprive ourselves 
of much instruction, encouragement and comfort 
in the Christian life, were we to omit a proper 
meditation upon the few words with which the 
text concludes. 

The apostle has been arguing to show that the 
new man in Christ Jesus, whose heart is ruled and 
whose life is ordered by the Holy Ghost, is no 
longer in bondage to the law, which had so long 

283 



284 AGAINST SUCH 

governed the Israelitish worshipper; but that, as 
one grown to man's estate, is set free from the 
authority of tutors and schoolmasters, (eh. iv. 1- 
6,) to guide himself by his own discretion, so the 
Church, being complete in Christ, is admitted to a 
spiritual freedom, and set above the law. It is 
free from the law of ceremonies, (which, from its 
heavy exactions, might well be said to have been 
" a yoke of bondage,") because the Spirit of Christ 
now does for the soul, by his inward grace, all 
that these ceremonies signified ; and it is free from 
the moral law, because Christ, by his substitution, 
righteousness and death, hath magnified the law 
for us and made it honourable, redeemed the be- 
liever from that penalty, which he must justly have 
incurred, as a sinner, and by his Spirit so trans- 
forms the dispositions and desires of his people, 
that God's commandments are no longer grievous 
to them but joyous, a perfect law of liberty, with 
which they delight to comply. 

The Christian life is not a slavish and reluctant 
obedience to God's requirements, because we fear 



THERE IS NO LAW. 285 

punishment should we transgress ; but a willing 
surrender of our affections and powers to God and 
his service, and because we love him for his excel- 
lent goodness, hope in his mercy, and find plea- 
sure in those things which he has commanded us 
to do. The laws he has given are to be studied 

i 

by us, not as affording, through a compliance with 

I them, the only escape from death, but as wise and 

salutary rules of living prescribed for us by our 

| loving and merciful God. They are constant and 

friendly guides, to assist us in finding the way in 

4 which we wish to walk ; and thus, instead of being 

against us, as restricting our pleasures, demanding 

hard and painful services, or threatening us with 

extreme and deserved punishment, they are for 

us, as helping us on in the pursuit of happiness 

in this, and eternal life in the world which is to 

come. 

The heart which is now full of love, jo£, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
ness, temperance, such as we have learned those 
graces to be, must have been converted from its 



286 AGAINST SUCH 

natural tendencies, which are adverse to the pure, 
meek, loving and beneficent spirit of Christianity ; 
and the believer, thus transformed, will delight 
humbly, patiently, faithfully and readily, to fulfil 
that law in all things. 

A sufficient answer is thus given to that most 
pernicious and fatal error, in these days, happily, 
seldom avowed, though there is reason to fear that 
it is not eradicated from the minds of many, which 
supposes that the salvation of Christ sets us free 
from any obligation to obey the moral law of God ; 
and to the objection brought by some enemies of 
the truth on the other extreme, that the doctrine 
of justification by faith tolerates a licentious and 
unrighteous life. The passage which we have now 
studied, clearly sets forth, that the very object of 
the Spirit dwelling in the hearts of believers, is to 
produce in their character all those virtues which 
are called the fruit of the Spirit ; and that, when 
they are not found in us, we are destitute of all 
evidence of our being born again as the children 
of God, and partakers of the redemption in Christ. 



THERE IS NO LAW. 287 

. The Christian is set free from the law, not by the 
. destruction of the law, (for Christ and Christianity 
I came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it,) but by 
the elevation of the believing soul to such a holi- 
I ness, and purity of desire and intention, that his 
conformity to the law is the free and cheerful 
j actings of his own sanctified will. He who has in 
I his heart love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 
j ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, cannot 
. lead an unrighteous or licentious life, any more 
than a sweet fountain can send forth bitter waters ; 
but, as Peter tells us at the close of a passage 
parallel to the one before us, " If these things be 
in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall 
neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge 
of our Lord Jesus Christ." These graces in our 
hearts, and the practice of them in our lives, con- 
stitute the only, but sufficient, evidence of our 
\ actual Christianity, as the leaves of a tree and its 
fruit in season can alone, but do certainly prove 
e healthful vitality of the tree which bears them. 
These effects of Divine power in our hearts, are 



288 AGAINST SUCH 

the genuine and undoubted testimony of the Spirit 
with our spirits, that we are born of God ; for as 
none, but he who believes in Jesus, shall be saved, 
so no faith is real but that which " purifieth the 
heart," " worketh by love," and " overcometh the 
world." 

It were well if professing Christians paid more 
regard to these plain and easily applied rules for 
trying their Christian sincerity, and less to those 
which have been invented by men. It is far safer 
to compare our daily conduct with the fruits of the 
Spirit here described, than to rest upon the untan- 
gible and shadowy evidence of mere emotions, 
frames, and sensibilities. An angel from heaven 
ought not to be believed, if he were to assert our 
Christianity and salvation, when we could find 
none of these proofs in our lives. For, as Arch- 
bishop Seeker well observes, " If we are destitute 
of the fruits of the Spirit, it is bad ; if we find 
them in our hearts and lives, we have proof enough 
of our condition being good, and need never dis- 
quiet ourselves for want of any other. Being able 



THERE IS NO LAW. 289 

to tell the very moment when we became pious 
and virtuous is not material, provided we are so 
now .... A feeling of immediate and sensible 
assurance of God's favour, so impressed upon us 
that we can certainly distinguish it to be of Divine 
original, from the manner in which it affects us, 
may be vouchsafed, but is no where in Scripture 
made necessary ; and all feelings are imaginary 
and deceptive, unless they be accompanied by that 
one which the apostle experienced and mentions : 
'For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our 
conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity 
we have had our conversation in the world.' " 

No one need to involve himself in metaphysical 
casuistry, and make the question of his soul's safety 
a complicated problem, if he be willing to try his 
daily life by the simple tests of Scripture. 

Thus, if a professing Christian allow himself to 
retain hatred, or ill-will, or envy, against his neigh- 
bour, no supposed spiritual emotions, nor ardour 
of devotional feeling, should counterbalance the 
direct testimony of God against his piety ; as we 
25 



290 AGAINST SUCH 

learn from 1 John iv. 20 : " If a man say, I love 
God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar : for he 
that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, 
how can he love God, whom he hath not seen ?" 
He is destitute of the fruit of the Spirit, which is 
love. 

If he find the duties and trials of the Christian 
life grievous and oppressive, so that he is continu- 
ally downcast and troubled, not finding in his re- 
ligion a comfort more than compensating for all 
his trials, which enables him to say, " My soul 
doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced 
in God my Saviour ;" no matter what other evi- 
dences of religion he may imagine himself to pos- 
sess, it is clear that he does not belong to the 
same school with him who said, " Rejoice in the 
Lord alway, and again I say, rejoice ;" neither has 
he obtained a full entrance to that " kingdom of 
God," which " is righteousness, and peace, and joy 
in the Holy Ghost." He has not the fruit of the 
Spirit, which is joy. 

If he be prone to anger, impatient of contradic- 



THERE IS NO LAW. 291 

tion, fond of dispute, and rancorus in controversy ; 
or if, while he remains calm himself, he is the 
occasion of unnecessarily disquieting the spirits of 
others, especially the Church, and trouble instead 
of peace prevails through him ; he may, like Jehu, 
profess great zeal for the Lord, and seem very 
active in the cause of religion, but is far from being 
a close follower of him, the Prince of Peace, to 
whom the prophet testified, " He shall not strive 
nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in 
the streets.-' (Matt. xii. 19). Neither will he be 
a full reaper in that harvest of righteousness, and 
praise unto God, " the fruit of which is sown in 
peace of them that make peace." He has not the 
fruit of the Spirit, which is peace. 

If he be repining and impatient with his lot on 
earth, murmuring against the afflictions of provi- 
dence, and querulous about every deprivation; 
finding little comfort in the hope which promises 
an eternal refuge from sin and sorrow, when life's 
brief pilgrimage is over; it is clear, that he has 
not the spirit of Christ, who taught us to pray, 



292 AGAINST SUCH 

" Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven ;" 
or of the apostle, who had " learned, in whatever 
state he was, to be content." He may have much 
knowledge, and do many acts which religion en- 
joins, bnt he has not that fruit of the Spirit, which 
is long-suffering. 

If he be violent in his disposition, noisy and im- 
petuous, rude in speech and careless of the feelings 
of others, bent upon having his own way, and un- 
willing to yield to his neighbour's comfort or 
honest scruples; instead of "being courteous," 
"honouring all men," and considering the exam- 
ple of Him who was meek and lowly in heart : no 
supposed goodness of intention, or honesty of 
mind, can make up for the absence of that fruit of 
the Spirit, which is gentleness. 

If he be selfish in preferring his own ease or in- 
dulgence to his neighbour's good, bestowing char- 
ity only when it costs him no sacrifice, or gets 
him praise and credit among men, and gives not 
from a principle of love to God and good will to 
his fellow creatures; he may have, from his op- 



THERE IS NO LAW. 293 

portunities and position, the means and ability to 
bestow largely upon the poor and the Church ; 
but the life of Christian charity is wanting, for 
he has not that fruit of the Spirit, which is good- 
ness. 

If he be not a strict observer of his truth, allow- 
ing himself to say nothing that might tend to an- 
other's unjust hurt, or to promise nothing which 

» 
he is not sure he intends, and will be able, to per- 
form ; or if he waver from his firm avowal of re- 
ligious principle and adherence to religious prac- 
tice, as times, companies, or circumstances vary ; 
if he be not unfeignedly honest, conscientious and 
steadfast in his duty to God, while he holds his 
intercourse with the world around him ; he swerves 
from that continuance in well-doing, that courage- 
ous devotion to God, and that equal love to his 
neighbour with himself, which are the certain 
marks of a true believer. He has not the fruit of 
the' Spirit, which is faith. 

If he be proud of his own attainments in re- 
ligious virtue, or vain of earthly station or person- 
25* 



294 AGAINST SUCH 

al advantages ; or, in any way, regards supercili- 
ously his fellow Christians or his fellow men, not 
ascribing to God all that makes him to differ from 
them ; if his manner be not humble and kind, and 
his conduct prove that he is willing to forget him- 
self for their advantage ; no matter what his pro- 
testations of Christian feeling may be, he ought 
not to wear the name of that Jesus, who u came 
not to be ministered unto but to minister ;" for he 
has not that peculiar fruit of Christ's Spirit, which 
is meekness. 

Or, if he be undisciplined in his spirit, not sub- 
jecting his desires and appetites to the rule of 
God's law, because it is God's law, but indulges 
himself in " the lust of the flesh, the lust of the 
eye, and the pride of life," or abstains only from 
some motive equally selfish ; he may think that he 
has many evidences of regeneration, but this one 
is wanting to make the evidence complete and 
satisfactory, the fruit of the Spirit, which is tern- 
perance. 

The rule by which the false prophets were to 



i THERE IS NO LAW. 295 

be tried, is that by which we should try our own 
hearts and conditions: "By their fruits shall ye 
know them." About the fruit there can be no 
deception. 

Such is the character of these graces, that we 
cannot exhibit them in our lives, except we have 
them in our hearts. Words or even actions pro- 
fessing kindness, when we feel no love, are hy- 
pocrisies. Smiles and lively thanksgivings, when 
there is no pious joy within, are hollow and miser- 
able pretences. The open hand and the smooth 
speech, when enmity or coldness rule the bosom, 
are treacherous perfidies. Endurance from mere 
necessity is not patience ; nor the politic control 
of tongue and conduct always gentleness ; nor are 
gifts in charity always goodness ; nor professions 
and pledges, faithfulness; nor a downcast brow 
and self-condemning confessions, meekness; nor 
abstinence from mischievous indulgence, temper- 
ance. 

"It is easy," says Dr. Abercrombie, "to as- 
sume the phraseology of religion, to acquire a 



296 AGAINST SUCH 

knowledge of its doctrines, to argue ingeniously 
and acutely on points of faith. It is not difficult 
to practise with decorum its rites and forms, to 
observe its ordinances, and to show all that zeal for 
the externals of religion, by which a man acquires a 
certain character in the eyes of men. It is easy 
for those who have the means, and it is gratifying 
to the feelings which exist in the generality of 
mankind, to practise much benevolence, and to 
show much real concern for alleviating the dis- 
tresses of others ;" and we may add, that it is not 
difficult for those who are accustomed to polite 
or even civilized society, to wear a bland and 
pleasing aspect, to preserve a calm and attractive 
mode of discourse, to veil an impertinent sense of 
one's superiority, or displeasure, or to refrain from 
gross and profligate excesses; but "much of all 
this, it is to be feared, may and does exist, while 
there is none of that discipline of heart, without 
which knowledge is vain, and faith but an empty 
name." 

"Man looketh on .the outward appearance, but 



THERE IS NO LAW. 297 

the Lord looketh on the heart ;" and as God is the 
judge of our sincerity in religion, it is not merely 
to our external conduct, but to the temper of our 
hearts, that we are to look for the evidence of our 
sincerity. Duties performed merely through fear 
of God's wrath, or as a painful price paid for future 
happiness, while the heart is not in them, but 
revolts from them, are not obedience, but selfish- 
ness and slavery. The external conduct has no 
value, except as proof of the inward temper. It 
is not enough that we have the form of godliness, 
in our most secret hearts we must confess its 
power ; for, amiable as the external show of these 
virtues may be in the sight of men, it is only as 
fruits of the Spirit, that they are precious in the 
sight of God. 

We should at the same time not forget, that the 
world can know us by our external conduct alone ; 
and, though we are not to make a boast of our 
religion, nor use it for our own glory among men, 
yet we are so to "let our light shine," or the 
power of our religion appear, that men, seeing our 



298 AGAINST SUCH 

good works, may glorify our Father which is in 
heaven. The graces of the Christian religion are, 
as we have seen, principally, those virtues which 
men profess to admire and love. The world 
knows very well how to distinguish right from 
wrong in such matters; and as religion lays 
claim to these virtues in a higher degree than 
any sentiment of worldly honour or unassisted 
human nature can reach, it will watch the Chris- 
tian with critical and jealous eyes, and not be 
satisfied if he be no better than other men. " What 
do ye more than others ?" will be their reproach- 
ful inquiry of the Church, if its members be not 
as distinguished in virtue, as the light of heavenly 
illumination should be from the twilight of human 
reason. 

We see also how the main practice of religion 
lies in such things and such occasions, as we have 
mostly to do with. God honours some men by 
making them apostles, and others by making 
them glorious in martyrdom ; some by giving 
them great power to use for his service ; others, 



THERE IS NO LAW. 299 

by bestowing upon them riches that they may be 
benefactors upon a large scale ; some, by causing 
them to suffer great reproach, that their light may 
appear the brighter, when it emerges from the 
cloud ; and others, by laying them upon beds of 
long and painful illness, that their exemplary 
patience and resignation may give an unusual 
testimony to their superiority over trial. But 
every Christian cannot be an apostle, or martyr, 
or confessor, or a great or rich man, or a hero in 
any form. The greater portion of us have to walk 
through life in the usual and thronged paths, and 
can be distinguished from our fellow travellers 
only by those virtues which common people may 
exhibit. If no men were patriots but those who 
command armies, or take a prominent part in the 
public councils, it is clear that a country would 
soon come to ruin. It is so with the Church. If 
we wait for the exercise of our virtues, until we 
have an opportunity to make our virtue notable, 
we shall live and die without it. Love, joy, peace, 
and the rest, are graces which may adorn the 
most ordinary and lowly cot, and beautify the 



300 AGAINST SUCH 

Christian character around the retired fireside, as 
well as in the sun-light of public observation. 
The heart is to be purified from hate, and envy, 
and discontent, and dishonesty ; and the tongue 
and the carriage, and the daily living, made orna- 
mental to the religious profession. He, who is 
not prepared to serve God daily, in his household, 
in his business, in his intercourse with men, need 
not flatter himself with dreams of what he would 
do, were he permitted to enact his career upon a 
wider theatre. He might seem more consistent in 
such circumstances, but it would be his pride, not 
his godliness, that would render him so. We can 
therefore, scarce do ourselves greater mischief 
than to separate a religious life from a good life, 
and a good life is good living at all times. Religion 
has its mysteries, its peculiar doctrines, and its 
supernatural hopes ; but the knowledge of these 
mysteries, the belief of these doctrines, and the 
cherishing of these hopes, are not the ends of 
religion ; they are only the means of it. Religion 
is love to God, and love to man. 



THERE IS NO LAW. 301 

The best guidance we can have in religion, un- 
der the blessed influence of the Holy Ghost, is an 
honest and sincere heart. If a man makes the 
word of God his guide, and the strength of God 
his stay, and means to do right, he will rarely do 
wrong. Duty will have its dark places, and its 
difficult places, but, if he still struggle on toward 
God and heaven, like Bunyan's Pilgrim in the 
Slough of Despond, he will get through on the 
right side. If, on the contrary, he be desirous of 
having as much of the world as he can, and doing 
as little for the Church and God as he can, and yet 
retain the Christian character and the Christian's 
hope, he will be constantly betrayed into inconsis- 
tency, and find Christ's burden heavy and his 
yoke galling. It is the restive bullock, that is 
galled in the yoke, not the docile and gentle one. 
If we keep ourselves to those things " against 
which there is no law," whose excellence is un- 
doubted and acknowledged by all, we shall stand 
in danger of no just condemnation ; and, though 
we cannot escape scandal and censoriousness, we 
26 



3()2 AGAINST SUCH 

shall have the consolation of a good conscience, 
knowing that we have not deserved them. If our 
hearts be guarded well, and the Holy Ghost, 
through prayer and faith, and the study of the 
Scriptures, and the use of all the means of grace, 
dwell in them, we shall be spared much anxiety 
in comparing our external conduct with the stand- 
ard of truth. We must have a spirit elevated 
above mere law by love and gratitude and delight 
in God and goodness, if we would be elevated 
above the bondage of law, and beyond its cen- 
sures. 

Let us remember also, that, although these are 
graces of the Spirit, they are Christian virtues: 
and that, although we cannot possess them except 
by God's gift, we must exercise them by our own 
endeavours. The Holy Spirit uses ourselves as 
the means of our own sanctification ; and so, if we 
would be found " serving the Lord," we must not 
only be " fervent in spirit," but " diligent in busi- 
ness." The excitement of our sensibilities without 
any consequences of outward practice, is hurtful, 



THERE IS NO LAW. 303 

instead of beneficial, to the moral temper; and 
one, who has only religious emotions (if that were 
possible) without religious activity, is sure to meet 
with the curse of the Master, when he comes 
" seeking fruit and findeth none." 

It is an awful consideration that we are temples 
of the Holy Ghost. How clean should that tem- 
ple, and all its vessels be, in which God dwells ? 
Our hearts, our members, our eyes, our ears, our 
tongues, should all be kept holy, because they are 
set apart to the Lord. As a garden fenced in by 
his ordinances, watered by his influences, breathed 
upon by his Spirit, and lightened and warmed by 
the Sun of Righteousness, should the Christian's 
life and the Christian Church be, abounding not 
only in leaves and blossoms, but substantial fruit 
Then would the Lord God dwell among us, and 
hold communion with us, as he once did with his 
holy children among the shades of Paradise, and 
there " be none to hurt or destroy in all his holy 
mountain." Then would the stakes of the Church 
be strengthened, and its cords be extended, until 



304 AGAINST SUCH 

Zion should become the whole earth, the " wilder- 
ness be as Eden, and the desert as the garden of 
the Lord." 

Our pleasant meditations upon our sweet text 
must now close. Yet, like him who saw the Lord 
on the holy mount, we could linger around it and 
say, " It is good to be here." How pure is the 
atmosphere, and how calm! Controversies and 
sectarian jars reach not this elevation. No creed 
forbids such virtues. How clear the sunshine ! 
No doubt rests upon the beauty of these Divine 
graces. How holy the society ! Each virtue, and 
all, reminding us of Jesus and the shining ones, 
who followed him on earth and now adore him in 
heaven. 

Beloved, let us leave our holy thoughts to prac- 
tise this holy morality ; nay, we can meditate as 
we practise, and while we walk on earth, our 
hearts may be in heaven. Happy will the writer 
be, if God has permitted him to bind up the fallen 
tendrils of any neglected grace ; to shed the dews 



THERE IS NO LAW. 305 

of the Spirit upon one drooping virtue ; or to en- 
courage into full loveliness one shrinking promise 
of Christian duty. Happier shall we all be, if 
knowing the will of our heavenly Father, we do 
it; that so Jesus may be glorified in us upon 
earth, and we be glorified in him for ever. 

11 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, 
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things 
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good 
report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be any 
praise, think on these things." Amen. 



THE END. 




fc_. 



26* 



I 



8^ 



